The Warning
by Sophie Flamel
Summary: Melanie Lenoir, a French student living in Montreal suddenly wakes up in a place she does not know. Bewildered at first, she realizes her plan has worked to perfection and she is exactly where she is supposed to be to stop the apocalypse. But first she needs the help of those who will become her friends to defeat the dark intentions of Bill Cipher
1. Chapter 1

Melanie awoke to the sound of a car passing by. The sunlight creating yellow circles on her eyelids, she opened them and sat. She soon realized she wasn't in her room; instead she was lying on the ground of a shop. Thankfully no one was in sight. She stood up, getting a little dizzy in the process, and proceeded to clean the dust and dirt off her clothes. Then she took a better look at the shop she was in.

She seemed to be in some kind of abandoned shop because there was a significant amount of dust on everything. She looked around for a possible exit and finding only one, opened the door that led to a parking lot. It was open, thankfully. Melanie found herself in an empty parking lot that seemed to lead nowhere in particular. Great, she thought. Now I have to find the main road and head home. She looked at her watch, but it seemed to have stopped working. Very convenient, she said to herself with sarcasm. This seemed more and more like a lucid dream. Maybe if she willed herself enough she would wake up. She closed her eyes and focused on waking up, creating the environment of her bedroom in her mind.

After a while, Melanie opened her eyes again. She hadn't moved an inch. Maybe this was the reality. Why was she here? She tried to remember her steps but she could only recall telling her university roommate she was going for a walk. And then nothing. She heard the sound of other cars passing by and walked to where the sound was coming from. If she found the main road, maybe she could find where her residence building was. Then an idea popped into her head. _My phone, I can use my phone! She_ reached inside her pocket where she usually put it, and found nothing. Maybe she had dropped it, she thought. But then she realized she had no memory of feeling the shape of her phone in her pants when she woke up.

Finding the main road was now her only option, and Melanie started walking in the direction of the sound of the cars. The alleys and roads she took were mostly empty, apart from a few pedestrians going on their usual business. Finally she saw the road that seemed the busiest of all and headed there. There were a few cars and some small businesses running along the sidewalks. This didn't look at all like any main road in Montreal. An idea popped inside Melanie's head but she pushed it back, preferring to be sure before she overreacted. As she reached the main road, she looked for a sign that could indicate the city she was in. She found it over a gas station. A smile grew upon her face. She had succeeded. She was in Gravity Falls.

She reached for her backpack to verify that all was going according to plan, now that she remembered she had one. In it were a few clothes, books, and other stuff that she thought she would need, including money. She had deliberately left her phone in Montreal because it wouldn't have been possible to travel with it. Melanie was filled with joy that her plan had worked so far. She was here, in Gravity Falls! The place was so full of mystery and paranormal creatures that you had to be blind not to see it. There were still a few technicalities that could have gone wrong, but the hardest thing was done, she thought, and now all she had to do was find the Mystery Shack. She looked at the sun up in the air. It was probably the end of the afternoon. She could try to find Lazy Susan's diner. She hesitated between going left or right, when a car stopped a few feet from her.

"Hey, are you a tourist?" Said a familiar voice, which belonged to Wendy Corduroy

"Um, yeah." Melanie answered, thinking it would be sufficient cover for now. "I'm looking for the Mystery Shack."

"I still don't get why people want to go there, it's a tourist trap. Worked there myself for some time. I can bring you if you want; I need to say hi to the Pines family anyway before leaving town."

"Thanks. " Melanie answered; though she knew accepting rides from strangers wasn't what her parents taught her. But Wendy wasn't a stranger, not really.

"Name's Wendy, by the way."

"I'm Melanie Lenoir."

"French, I suppose? Come on in."

Melanie got into the car in the passenger seat next to Wendy.

"So, why are you going to the Mystery Shack? "Wendy asked

"I don't know, I just heard they had amazing stuff there. Plus it's a tourist attraction; it's kind of the point for tourists to go there."

"Haha, I guess you're right. It always amazed me how people could think this stuff was real. I mean, a stuffed gorilla puppet wearing a boxer! What are people thinking?"

"Wow, yeah, it does sound like the greatest scam of all."

"Yeah man, I'm only bringing you there because you asked for it and I need to see the owners."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

The rest of the ride was mostly silent. Wendy pointed out the different spots Melanie might want to see to get a real visit of the town and not just the Mystery Shack. Melanie just nodded and thought about the rest of her plan. She needed to make sure that she was in the right season and year. By the way Wendy talked about the Pines family, she clearly meant that there was more than just "Grunkle" Stan waiting for her at the shack, and since Wendy wasn't working there anymore, it meant that she probably had a job outside of town now. So far it seemed to point out to the right date but Melanie needed to be sure before she did anything else.

Wendy's car entered the forest and after a few minutes came to a full stop in front of an old wooden house: the Mystery Shack. Melanie stared in amazement _. She was there, she really was there!_

Wendy got out of the car, followed by Melanie, and showed her the way to the front door of the shop. The shack was exactly how Melanie had imagined it would be for the most part. Maybe just a little more ancient and creepy. She followed Wendy into the shop.

As she entered, Wendy got attacked by a brunette who seemed at the end of her teens.

"Wendy! You came to say goodbye!"

"Of course Mabel, I would never leave town before seeing you guys."

Mabel looked over Wendy's shoulder at Melanie.

"Who's that?" Asked Mabel

"Oh that's Melanie Lenoir. She's a French tourist." Answered Wendy

"Oh my god! You speak French?" Excitedly said Mabel

"Well, yeah." Replied Melanie

"So fancy! Well, I better get Dipper to show you around. I have a lot to talk about with my pal Wendy. "Mabel said and then shouted "DIPPER! THERE'S A PRETTY FRENCH GIRL WHO NEEDS A TOUR!"

"Um, I don't know about pretty… "shyly said Melanie

"Wait, you speak English? "Asked Mabel

"Well yeah."

Footsteps rushed down the stairs and a grunt from a boy who must be Dipper came.

"Mabel, I swear if you're bothering me in my research for nothing…"

"Look Dipper, she speaks English. Her name is Melanie. Be nice to her. "Mabel said to Dipper, and then to Melanie " Come one, he'll show you around"

"Yeah, yeah. "Said Dipper without even looking at Melanie for more than a second.

"Thanks Mabel." Said Melanie

"Don't sweat it." Replied Mabel as she gently pushed Melanie towards Dipper

Dipper then entered the exhibit, mumbling about how the shack was full of mysteries and all. Melanie followed until she was sure they could not be heard by either Mabel or Wendy. Dipper stopped as if he had been thinking the same thing.

"You don't care about the Mystery Shack, do you?"

"Not really."

"Why are you here then? You don't seem as gullible as most tourists who come in here."

"No you're right, I'm not. That's because I know what this town really is about. Just like you do."

"What? You know about the paranormal activity here? Who told you? How do you know? Who are you?"

"I would tell you, but I need to make sure of something first. What is today's date?"

"Um," Dipper hesitated. He did want to know how this French girl came to know the secrets of Gravity Falls without ever coming here, while he came here every summer. He finally answered, " we're July 1st, 2019. Why do you need to know?"

"Because I have to make sure I didn't teleport to the wrong year."

"What do you mean teleport? What..." Melanie cut his questions short.

"Sit down and listen to what I have to say."

They sat down on the floor and Melanie explained what she was doing here.

"I come from a different dimension where your reality is a cartoon on a TV channel for kids. "


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper couldn't believe what Melanie had just said. A different dimension? Like the Mindscape? He was a cartoon? What? Before he could process what Melanie had already told him or ask any more questions, she continued to explain.

"In my dimension, everything is similar to yours. There's a United States of America and the only difference is that you guys exist only in a cartoon show. Now I've always wished to live in your dimension instead of mine; so I started to do some research about magic and supernatural creatures. I think you can relate to that."

It was true, if there was something Dipper was very familiar with, it was magic and the supernatural. He himself had done some research about magic and had learned some spells. He preferred to not tell Melanie all that, because if she didn't know then it was something he could use against her if she turned out to be here to hurt them. He listened to the rest of her story before making assumptions though.

"After about a year of research, I could do some spells, but in my dimension magic is not very strong. This is where I figured that it would be stronger in your dimension, as well as some others. So for another year I researched if it was possible to travel between different dimensions. I found out that there are a few places in my dimensions where magic is strong enough to travel from one dimension to another. One of them was very close to where I lived. So from then on, for about two months, I traveled there every weekend to try to open a portal. At first, I opened portals to dimensions with either very strong magic, like the Mindscape, or dimensions with about as much magic as mine. Finally I figured I would need to travel to a dimension to verify if it was possible. I decided that since I've always wanted to come to Gravity Falls to explore its mysteries and meet you guys, I would try to travel there.

So yesterday, I took a bag with a bunch of stuff and went to the magic hotspot to open a portal. It took me some time to get the portal open because I had never opened it to Gravity Falls. When it opened, I guess I must have been so tired I just walked in and collapsed because when I woke up this morning, I was lying in the back alley of the dusk-2-dawn. At first I didn't know where I was, or what I was doing here. But I walked to the main road and realized that my portal had worked. "she paused "Well with a minor problem…"

"What minor problem? Does it mean you can't go back?" Dipper asked, astonished by her story.

"Whoa, don't worry; I think I can go back since the magic here is so strong I can create a portal wherever I want. It's just that when I opened the portal the date was June 29th in my dimension, and here you said it was July 1st. So either I did not focus as much as I should have on the date and missed it by two days, or I was just so tired I was unconscious for those two days." Melanie looked up to the ceiling as if searching for other reasons why she could have taken two days to travel.

"Wait, does that mean that you could have died opening that portal? If it was strong enough to knock you unconscious for two whole days…" Dipper was so curious he didn't realize he was actually worrying about this girl.

"I don't know. Maybe…." Suddenly, Melanie's stomach made a noise of dissatisfaction "Whatever happened, it looks like I'm hungry though."

"But do you have any idea of the implications of what you just told me? It means I could create a portal too and maybe go into the Mindscape and destroy Bill Cipher once and for all. Or even travel to other dimensions to learn everything I can about magic and the supernatural! And…"

"Dipper. All that would be possible, yes, but it wouldn't do any good and may have bad consequences." Melanie cut Dipper's epiphany short.

"How could it have bad consequences? You did it, why can't I?" Dipper was starting to feel suspicious of Melanie. After all, she did know a lot about him because of this cartoon show, and she was clearly a more powerful witch than he was.

"Well, I did it after two months of practice and I even think I should have done more because it drained me so much. Plus it wouldn't be good to mess up one dimension, let alone more." Melanie's tone had gotten harsher.

"Then why did you come here? If you think traveling between dimensions is bad, why did you do it yourself?" Dipper asked, wanting to get to the bottom of things. He felt like this Melanie was on their side but he needed to be sure.

"Well, you remember Bill Cipher?" Melanie asked, calming down.

"How could I forget?" was the response.

"He said he would take over Gravity Falls and destroy you in the process, didn't he?" Melanie continued.

"Yeah but that was seven years ago, I haven't seen him ever since. Wait, are you…?" Dipper got ready to get up any instant.

"What? No! What kind of idea is that?" Melanie seemed offended he would believe such a thing, so Dipper sat back once again, still not trusting her. Melanie continued "Anyway, when I was practicing opening portals, I did open it to Gravity Falls one time before coming here."

"What? You lied to me?" Dipper got up and grabbed Melanie by the collar of her shirt. "Tell me the truth now or I won't hesitate to kill you." Melanie didn't seem to panic however, and she continued to tell her tale as calm as possible.

"Like I was saying, I opened the portal to Gravity Falls once before. But something was wrong. It looked nothing like the Gravity Falls that I knew from the cartoon. Sure, a few years might have passed since 2012 when it takes place, but still. The change was terrible. Everything was destroyed." Melanie stopped. Dipper lessened his grip on her shirt.

"So? What happened that made you come here?" Dipper urged her.

"I saw… I don't know what I saw. They looked like human beings but I could tell they weren't." the look of utter fear displayed on Melanie's face made Dipper let go of her. He still wanted to know more though.

"Were there humans as well?" Dipper asked.

"No. It was empty of any kind of human life. I feared I had come too far in the future, after the extinction of humankind when I saw something worse than the humanoid monsters." Melanie paused. "It was Bill Cipher." She finally said.

"Bill? What was he doing? Did he say something? What happened?" Dipper was no angrier at Melanie, he just wanted to know the truth at this point.

"He was leading an army I think, at least that's what it looked like. I followed him. He led us to the Mystery Shack. It looked like it had been blown apart, and inside was the reason I came here." Melanie swallowed and murmured. "There were some humanoid shapes on the ground. At first I thought it was some more of those monsters, but then I looked closer. " She stopped.

"It was us, wasn't it? Me, Mabel and Stan?" Dipper asked, already sure of the answer.

"And Soos. I couldn't do anything, you were just lying there, dead." Melanie tried to retain her sobbing.

"And you're sure this happened after 2019? How can you know? How did you know you had to come now and not later or earlier?"

"The date on the calendar was June 2019. I knew I had to come before then to warn you." Melanie finished, hoping Dipper would believe her.

"Don't you think it could all be a fragment of your imagination? Or some alternate future that may not even exist? How can I trust you?" Dipper asked.

"I have no proof, that's true." Melanie paused. "But can't you let me the benefice of the doubt?"

"Listen, Melanie. Mabel and I haven't seen Bill for a long time and I think you may just be making a mountain out of nothing."

"Dipper…" Melanie tried to talk.

"Just shut up and listen!" Dipper said, louder than he would have wished.

Dipper stopped. He had never trusted a stranger before in his life. But somehow, he felt Melanie was telling the truth, he could feel it with the little magic he had activated while she was talking. As far as he was concerned, her whole theory about her being from a different dimension seemed to be true. The story about Bill, not so much. Her voice didn't sound as steady as she explained the reason she was here, and Dipper felt she was still holding some secrets back. But god he wanted to trust her. For seven summers he had waited for Bill to reappear and confirm his fears; but the dream demon never came and Dipper could only fear what his comeback would be. And now this girl who he barely knew told that Bill hadn't forgotten about his master plan. He looked at her waiting for his answer. She was smaller than him in height, her face round and kind of adorable, her long brown hair braided. She reminded him of Mabel in the way that she looked innocent, adorable and likeable; but her being a witch and looking for trouble in other dimension was nothing like Mabel. _What would Mabel say?_ She would invite Melanie to stay here for as long as she wanted and tell them all about herself. But that's not what Dipper wanted. He wanted to get to the bottom of things. If everything she had said was true…

" I will say that your story intrigued me. A lot actually. I still can't believe all you said is true. So I'm giving you one day here to prove it to me and tell me all you can to help us against Bill; and then I want you to go back to your dimension. I don't want to disturb this town more than it already is; and since I don't know if I should trust you, I don't want you here more than necessary."

"I understand your point. I'm sorry I bothered you, but I just wanted to help."

"And you will." Dipper started walking out of the tour exhibit, when he remembered she was hungry. "How about some diner?" he added.

"That would be great, thanks."

Melanie could see that Dipper didn't fully believe her, but if she wanted to do what she came here to do, then she needed him to believe her. If he didn't, he might die; or worse.

The two teenagers came out of the tour exhibit into the store where Mabel and Wendy were having a dance off. When Mabel saw her brother, she rushed towards him as Wendy shut down the music.

"Bro-bro, Wendy wanted to take us to the diner before she left. You know, to spend some quality time with her friends." Mabel nudged her brother, winking at Wendy at the same time. "How about you come with us Melanie? I've never seen Dipper get along with a girl so well!"

"Mabel! "said Dipper, annoyed and blushing

"Come on we'll take my car." Said Wendy.

"Woo! Lunch!" Said Mabel with enthusiasm

As Mabel left Dipper and Melanie alone, he turned to the French girl and said: "Not a word of what you told me to Mabel. She mustn't know." Melanie nodded and the two of them joined the others in the car as it left for the diner.


	3. Chapter 3

Diner went well for the most part, not that the rest was bad. At first they all sat at a booth, Mabel and Dipper on one side, Wendy and Melanie on the other, Wendy facing Mabel as Melanie faced Dipper. Conversation first hovered about what Wendy was going to do at her new job. Apparently she was going to be modeling for some ads or something; Melanie wasn't really listening, deeply immersed in her thoughts.

She needed Dipper to believe that she was here for his own good and for nothing else in less than 24 hours. And she needed to tell Mabel and Grunkle Stan she was staying the night and maybe more. Or would Dipper take care of it? The way he was suspicious about her seemed to say he couldn't care least if she had to sleep in the woods. Bummer, she was really counting on his curiosity in the paranormal to help save Gravity Falls. She hadn't lied. She just hadn't told the whole truth; but the whole truth would only distract them from reaching their goal and she couldn't let that happen.

They ordered food, Mabel even getting pancakes for diner. Then the brunette asked:

"So Melanie, why did you come to Gravity Falls?"

"I just wanted to visit. "Melanie answered

"And nothing more." Rapidly added Dipper

"Whoa Dipper, calm down man. Your sister's just asking your friend there a question," calmly said Wendy

"It's okay," said Melanie. "Mabel, do you think it'd be okay if I slept over at the shack tonight, I don't really have a room booked at a hotel…"

"Are kidding? Sleepover! I'm sure Grunkle Stan will say yes. As a matter of fact, he already has."

"Really?" Asked Dipper

"Nah, I just gave myself permission from him. Hahaha!" Mabel laughed, joined by Wendy, earning a light chuckle from Dipper

Their food arrived and they ate, mostly in silence. As Mabel finished her plate, she started joking about how Wendy was going to have so much fun next year, but her eyes started to get watery and she excused herself and left the table. Wendy left after her to comfort her. Dipper and Melanie stayed alone, which made Melanie sit back and wait for him to ask her more questions, expecting him to have more. As Dipper did nothing of the sort and just emptied his plate, she asked

"You still don't trust me?"

"Nope; but I'm hoping it will come soon because you're going to be sleeping at the shack and if you dare touch a hair on Mabel's head…"

"Yeah I know, you'll kill me or something. Don't worry, I know everything about you guys, remember? Or well at least, everything that happened during your first summer in Gravity Falls."

"How am I supposed to take this well? Here comes a person who says they know more about magic and myself then me by just doing research for two years when I've been searching seven years for answers!" Dipper crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't worry Dipper, I'll show you what I know. And you probably know stuff that I don't. That's also one of the reason I came here." Melanie leaned forward.

"So I can teach you stuff? Forget it!" Dipper leaned back, looking at the exit, waiting for Mabel and Wendy to walk back in.

"I might need it." Added Melanie, scared Dipper might not give her a chance at all.

"No you won't. You're leaving tomorrow."

When it became obvious Mabel and Wendy were not coming back, Dipper paid for diner and left the restaurant. Melanie took a minute to think about what had happened. Dipper still didn't trust her and that would be a problem considering what was going to happen. She had to convince him she didn't want to hurt him or Mabel in any way. She left the restaurant and joined the others who had already gotten in the car.

"Seatbelts." Ordered Mabel

And they rode back to the Mystery Shack.

Grunkle Stan was waiting for them on the porch, drinking soda.

"Where have you kids been?"

"We're not kids, we're adults legally in most countries." replied Dipper

"Well you're still a kid to me." Said Stan, ruffling his hand through Dipper's hair

"Wendy brought us to the diner." Said Mabel. "And Dipper got a new friend today!"

"She's not my friend! "Said Dipper, annoyed

"Who's that?" Asked Stan

"Hi, I'm Melanie. I'm just staying here for the night because I don't really have a place to stay… if that doesn't bother you sir." Melanie explained

"Ha, no one calls me sir anymore here. I like this kid." Joked Stan, "You can stay; just not in Dipper's room, I don't want him being all weird."

"Grunkle Stan, she's not my friend, and definitely not that type of friend. And she'll be staying in the guest's room. "Said Dipper

That said, Dipper headed for the house, followed by Mabel and Melanie.

"Bye guys! I'll keep contact as much as I can!" Yelled Wendy from the car

"Bye Wendy!" Mabel yelled back, tears in her eyes

Melanie took Mabel's hand and gave it a squeeze, seeing how Dipper was completely oblivious of his sister's sadness. Mabel smiled at Melanie and went to show her room for the night, as well as the bathroom. They all said their goodnights and Melanie headed to the guest's room.

It was the room Soos had discovered, the one with the weird carpet which was now gone. She finally took her bag off her shoulders and set it on the ground. She took a pajama from it and headed for the bathroom. Thankfully it was empty. She took a much needed shower, brushed her teeth and sleepily went to bed.

Meanwhile Dipper and Mabel got up the stairs to their room. Mabel was too sad about Wendy leaving that she just put on her pajamas and went to bed. Dipper knew she would be better tomorrow. He already had his own troubles and didn't need to worry about his sister right now. Both the news of different dimensions other than the Mindscape and the warning about Bill would probably keep him awake all night. He sat in his bed after taking off his jacket and shorts; and thought about what had happened. If Melanie was right, he did need her to fight Bill and his plan to kill them all; but he still wondered how he could trust her. She seemed nice enough but it didn't seem like she was telling him everything.

A door closed downstairs and Dipper heard Grunkle Stan go to bed. Maybe he should sleep too. He tried to close his eyes, but couldn't. Instead he just decided to figure Melanie out. He took out his computer and searched her on the web. What did she say her last name was again? Dipper couldn't remember, so he closed his laptop and put it down, knowing it would be pointless anyway. As he did so, he heard a door opening from downstairs. Probably Grunkle Stan going to the bathroom, or Melanie doing something. Since he wasn't going to sleep, Dipper went downstairs to get some milk, taking his laptop with him. As he went down, he heard another door open, this one closer to him. He looked around to see who it was, but couldn't figure out a shape in the darkness. Instead he headed for the kitchen and put his laptop on the table.

He was heading for the fridge when he realized that he didn't hear any doors closing. Grunkle Stan usually closed doors after him. Maybe it was Melanie. If it was her, he could probably talk to her since she didn't seem to be sleeping. He left the kitchen and felt a brush of wind go past him. That was unusual. He looked to his right and saw the front door was opened. That was not good, not good at all. He followed the trail to the next door that was open, making as less noise as possible. He heard another door open in front of him and stopped. It was the door to the guest room, where Melanie was supposedly sleeping. He grabbed the first thing he could find, which was a wooden board from the ground, and walked slowly to the room. He could see the outline of a man much taller than himself in the middle of the room. It seemed like the stranger hadn't heard him, so Dipper continued to walk forward until he saw the moonlight's reflection on a blade. The stranger was holding it up in the air like he was going to strike Melanie down with it. The girl was lying with her back facing the two men and seemed asleep.

Dipper took a few steps forward into the doorway and yelled: "Melanie! Wake up!" Melanie bolted awake and sat on her bed. The stranger turned toward Dipper who turned the light on and swung his plank to hit the stranger's hand. He didn't know how he did it, but he managed to make the stranger drop the blade. Dipper prepared himself for an attack but instead the stranger took a sort of black sand from his pocket and dropped it to the ground, disappearing in a cloud of black smoke. The blade was still there, and as Dipper picked it up, he aimed it at Melanie. "What was that?"

"I don't know anything about it I swear. We have to make sure he left the house. "

Melanie got up and ran to the front door. She could see no sign of the man outside the shack. She ran back to Dipper inside.

"I checked Mabel and Stan's rooms. He's not here anymore." Said Dipper as he closed the front door behind Melanie. "Now explain to me exactly what that was about. And I want the whole truth this time.

"I don't know that man, I swear. But I may have an idea who sent him and why."

"Go on, don't keep me waiting. I never want this to happen again, and I don't think you do either; so spill the beans."

"Well, I think he was sent by the demon that's been haunting me in my dreams for two years now because he has more power here. And he was sent to kill me."

"Why?"

"Because I know too much about this town and what he is going to do to it. If I die or leave, you have no chance to survive the apocalypse Bill Cipher has prepared. He learned that and decided to up his haunting game by eliminating me."


	4. Chapter 4

Dipper couldn't think of a thing to say. She was haunted in her dreams too? He hadn't been for the last seven years, so he had thought it was a good omen; but it didn't look like it anymore. If Melanie was haunted, who was haunting her? Was it Bill? Another dream demon? Was it the man that had almost taken her life? Before he could really think it through, Melanie explained:

"It was just a few weeks after I started researching magic. I had done my first spell, and fell asleep because it drained my energy. But weirdly, my dreams weren't like the usual. I normally have lucid dreams and can control all that happens to me; but that time it was a nightmare, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I felt powerless so I stopped doing magic for a while after, still doing research on the side. The nightmares stopped, so I figured I could try again. But they came back, stronger than before. It also lasted longer; but the more I went into my research and practiced magic, the more they came and grew. I was just dreaming of fear, until one day it took a shape and told me to be warned. I didn't know against what, so I continued to do magic to get the nightmares. I needed to know why it was trying to prevent me from learning. I needed to know what it was hiding."

"What? Are you crazy?" exclaimed Dipper

"I wanted to know more! I'm sure you can understand that. And it wasn't really hurting me in any way; I just… slept less and was kind of afraid of any loud noise." Melanie defended herself.

"I hope all this brought results or else I'd think you were crazy." Dipper crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for an answer.

"Don't worry; I'm only talking about it because it has to do with you and Gravity Falls. So, after a while, the fear started to take shape. Not a monster, no, it was human. Then one day I realized it was you. The fear, or the dream demon if you want to call it that, was appearing to me looking like you." Melanie paused.

"That is messed up." Replied Dipper.

"Yeah, tell me about it. And then it started talking to me. Saying that your dimension was coming to an end, that if I didn't find a way to teleport there and help you, you would all die. That's why I looked into your future and saw… what I saw." Melanie paused. Wow, she sounded even crazier than when it actually happened to her.

"And what exactly does that have to do with a man coming in our home in the middle of the night to murder you?" Asked Dipper, getting annoyed at the silence

"I guess that whoever is haunting me has somehow ordered a paid assassin to kill me because I know how to help you. I've been researching for months and I am the only one that can help you grow strong enough to save Gravity Falls. You have the power to do it but you need me to help you reach your full potential."

"Like, you're here to train me to fight Bill or something?" Dipper asked.

"Something along those lines. I know how to read auras and see how much magic you can channel. I've seen people get better with practice, like myself. I can channel a considerable amount of magic; but I've rarely seen someone who could channel as much as you. I guess you've been here for so long, and practiced magic all that time; you must have absorbed a lot over the years. You're more powerful than you think, Dipper; and I'm here to help you be the best you can possibly be. I was warned in a dream about Gravity Falls' apocalypse. That's why I'm here. There I spilled the beans." She paused, looking at his confused face. "You must think I'm crazy."

"I'm sort of used to things like that now, though I have to admit your story beats most of the others I've heard or seen. I don't think you're crazy, I just think that acting on a hunch because you heard it in a dream isn't the best way to save a dimension, even if you turned out to be right. "He paused, reflecting." And since I'm all about acting on a hunch when it comes to the supernatural and magic, I think you should stay here and we could teach each other stuff and…"

"Thank you!" interrupted Melanie, jumping to wrap her arms around Dipper's shoulders, hugging him. His body tensed under her touch, and she stepped back. "Sorry."

"Nah, I'm sorry. I just don't know how to feel about you just yet since you didn't tell me the whole truth at first, and I'm not really used to human interaction with people outside my family and friends." Dipper raised a hand to rub the back of his neck." So, um, since you kind of almost got killed by a murderer; would you want to sleep in our room with Mabel? I'm sure she wouldn't mind…" asked Dipper, realizing suddenly that both young adults were both in their pajamas, and while Melanie's was baggy enough to hide her body, his was a bit more revealing since he was only in his boxers.

"I was afraid you'd never ask!" Melanie nudged Dipper hesitantly, to which he answered with a smile and a yawn.

They headed back to the guest room, closing down all the doors on the way. Melanie was still wide awake from what had happened even though she had been exhausted a few hours before. She never thought she would be attacked by some stranger here. Maybe the dream that had brought her here had only done so to eliminate her. It had been a trap all along; but she could not admit defeat just yet. She needed to get to the bottom of this, if not for Dipper and Mabel then for herself. The worse was that she didn't know if Dipper really needed her help or not, maybe he would have done fine without her. Anyway, she still wanted to be here because changing dimensions was great and being in this one sure was an upgrade from before.

Once they got back to her room, Dipper at her and asked:" You think this might happen again? Or is it only tonight?"

"Probably will continue happening until I either die or leave or we succeed to defeat whatever is haunting me. If we're lucky it might give up now. I thought I would have been able to take care of it myself and not get you involved in this, but now that you know might as well not take any risks."

"So, it's going to come again?" Dipper sounded scared.

"Maybe not the same, but yes I fear I'm not gonna get a lot of sleep anytime soon."

"So we're taking the mattress as well. I'll take it, and you carry the rest of your stuff."

Melanie grabbed the covers, her pillow and her backpack, while Dipper tilted the mattress until it flipped to the ground and started carrying it up the stairs. He was way stronger than Melanie had imagined or seen in the nightmares. He carried the heavy mattress up the stairs with no apparent effort. Gone were his noodle arms as he called them, Stan must have really rubbed off on him. Melanie almost bumped into the mattress as he stopped to open to the door to his and Mabel's room. The light was on, and Mabel was awake, sitting on her bed and rubbing her eyes. Dipper entered and dropped the mattress between the twins' beds. Melanie dropped all her stuff she was carrying on top of it.

"What's going on bro-bro?" asked Mabel

"Nothing, Melanie was just feeling lonely downstairs. And I think Grunkle Stan may have scared her with his chest hair." Answered Dipper

"Haha, okay. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Mabel."

Mabel dropped back on her pillow and soon fell asleep. Melanie started putting the covers back on the mattress and sat on her bed. She looked up to Dipper to see he had sat on his own bed as well.

"Why don't you want her to know the truth?" Asked Melanie

"Because what she doesn't know can't hurt her."

"But she's older than when you first came here. She knows what kind of things are living in those woods, she saw them. She would understand. She wouldn't be as scared as you think she would. I'm sure she'd even help us. You know she's strong, why don't you trust her?"

"I just prefer her to be safe… at least safer than me."

"She would be safer if she knew all you knew. If you're not going to tell her the truth about me, I will; but I really think you should do it. You owe her that, she's your twin sister after all. Wherever you go, she follows. Why not tell her the truth about the girl sleeping in her room?"

"I'll tell her tomorrow if you insist. I really think I shouldn't, but if you're gonna do it anyway…"

"Thank you."

Melanie got under the covers as Dipper did the same and turned off the lights. They exchanged goodnight and soon drifted off to sleep. For the first time in ages, Melanie fell asleep with no nightmare in sight. Dipper, on the other hand, thought that he would fall asleep rapidly but ended up doing the opposite. He couldn't sleep, he had almost witnessed a murder. Would he have let Melanie die? The question was bothering him, because no matter how much he liked to believe he was the nice guy, he didn't really feel like he knew Melanie well enough to do her any favors. That thought in itself, that he might not have done anything, frightened him. He realized that in the end he didn't let the stranger kill Melanie and that was what counted. He could feel his eyelids getting heavier when a voice rang through his head. "Hi there, Pine Tree. Long time no see!"


	5. Chapter 5

Dipper felt his heartbeat quicken. He thought he would never hear this voice again. He opened his eyes, and the world around him was in black and grey tones. A familiar gold Dorito with a bowtie was floating in front of him.

"What do you want Bill?"

"What kind of way is that to welcome an old friend? It has been like what, seven human years, since I've come here. God, even you changed Pine Tree; you're tougher than you used to be. You don't have those noodle arms anymore." Said Bill Cipher, arms crossed over his triangle chest.

"I'm 19 now Bill, obviously I don't look like a kid anymore! What do you want?" asked Dipper

"Still straight to the point, I see. Well, I was just passing by to warn you about the upcoming apocalypse, that's all."

"So it's true?" asked Dipper, cautiously.

"What do you mean it's true? Have I ever lied to you Pine Tree?" asked Bill, doing his best to look innocent.

"Yes you have, but that's not the point. I already knew about the apocalypse."

"How did you know?" Bill turned red and grew bigger. His anger was palpable.

"Um, a hunch." Said Dipper, realizing he couldn't let Melanie take the blame for his slip up.

"A hunch? You call that a hunch?" Bill turned transparent and Melanie appeared on his surface, just as she was when she had told him everything she knew about the apocalypse earlier.

"Why did you ask me if you knew?" Dipper asked, confused. He never understood Bill, but that was unusual; even for him.

"I was just messing with you kid." Bill turned gold again. "Of course I knew she'd tell you, she traveled here just to do so."

"Are you the one giving her nightmares Bill? Because if you are…"

"Wow slow down Pine Tree. Why do you care all of a sudden? I thought you would consider her a threat?"

"I just want to know, because if you are haunting her, you are even more of a threat."

"Oh, I don't think so. I am your worst nightmare. Yeah, I've been giving her a hard time, but she's been looking for it. Sometimes she looks into the mindscape and sees things she shouldn't. She's on your side kid, you're gonna need her. Well, I gotta go. Bye, Pine Tree!"

"Wait!" yelled Dipper, jolting awake and awaking the girls at the same time. Mabel looked tired and rubbed her eyes, annoyed at being awakened by her brother twice in the same night.

"What's going on?" she mumbled

Melanie on the other hand was busy sitting with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. It looked like she was meditating. Dipper didn't dare interrupt her so he shushed Mabel and waited for Melanie to say something. After a while she opened her eyes.

"He knows I'm here. He knows his plan to kill me failed. He left for the mindscape, said he would be back tomorrow." She turned to Dipper: "What did he say to you, Dipper?"

Dipper was astonished. Was she just talking to Bill? What was that? Melanie started to look at him weirdly thinking he maybe didn't hear her; and he realized she had asked him something.

"He told me stuff you already told me: the apocalypse, the nightmares… What was that you just did?"

"Oh, going into the Mindscape? It's a trick I'll teach you. It's way easier here."

"So you talked to Bill?" asked Dipper, curious.

"Bill? You talked to Bill? Both of you? Who are you Melanie?" Mabel's astonishment was replaced by sadness. "You knew?" she asked Dipper.

"I didn't think something would happen so soon. I meant to tell you tomorrow. I swear Mabel. Don't be mad at me!" pleaded Dipper

"I am mad at you, Dipper. You never tell me anything because you think it's better for me; but it hurts. I am not made of sugar, Dipper. Why don't you trust me?"

"I just want you to be happy and not worry about the rest."

"Well not knowing doesn't make me happy. It makes me sad. You explain to me right now what's going on!"

Dipper explained all he knew about Melanie, the stranger that had almost killed her and why she was now staying in their room, probably for the nights to come. He told her about Bill and the message he had for him. He then let Melanie explain what exactly she had done.

"When you woke up and yelled 'wait', you woke me up and I felt a presence in the room. I thought it was Bill, or maybe just a hunch, I don't know. I didn't see anyone so I guessed it must have been him. Since he was nearby I went into a meditation state to connect with the mindscape. Bill was still nearby so he came to me and we talked. He knows I'm here and that his plan to kill me failed so he won't send someone else. Should we trust him?"

"From what I remember of Bill, he can only be trusted when he has struck a deal with you. So I would say either he's lying to you or just simply doesn't care enough what happens to you. We can't be sure." said Dipper "So Mabel, are you happy to know now that Melanie may either be the death of us or save us but that whatever happens it's going to be bad?

"I don't think I like what's going on and the odds at stake; but at least you told me the truth. I think I can handle that, I'm your twin after all, Dipper."

A smile crept on Dipper's face; and Mabel got out of her bed and stepped over to her twin to hug him. Dipper hugged her back, seeing Melanie making an 'I told you so' face behind Mabel's shoulder. She had been right, Mabel just wanted him to say the truth and he did feel like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Mabel released Dipper and rubbed her eyes again.

"You go to bed" said Dipper

"Goodnight" Mabel answered as she went back to her bed and slid back for the third time of the night in her bed.

"You think something else is going to ruin our night? "asked Dipper, admitting that Melanie probably knew more than him

"I think we've had enough. Let's get some sleep. "Melanie and Dipper slid back under their covers and Dipper turned off the lights.

Melanie thought about what had happened. Bill had visited Dipper first and hadn't intended on visiting her at all even though he knew she was here. That meant he was losing interest in her and that he considered Dipper more important. So she needed to be careful, she couldn't let Bill Cipher use Dipper in any way. When he had talked to her, he had said one thing that she knew she had to keep for herself; and even though she had asked Dipper to be honest with Mabel; she wasn't going to be honest with him. She couldn't tell him that, he would lose all hope of ever wining and surviving. Bill had said that she would never see Dipper turn twenty. Whether it meant that she would die before Dipper reached twenty or he would, the prophecy was still very dreadful. _Good luck sleeping with that at night_. Somehow she managed to close her eyes and drift off to sleep for a few hours.

She woke up the next morning to Grunkle Stan (yes she would call him that if she wanted to) yelling at the bottom of the stairs to wake the kids up. Melanie opened her eyes to see that light was bathing the room. She sat and turned to look at the twins. Dipper was still lying in his bed, eyes closed, in that state between sleep and waking, mostly pretending he was still sleeping. Mable on the other hand was rubbing her eyes as she had done for most of the night and looked at Melanie. She smiled and got out of bed. "Wake Dipper up, I have to get breakfast ready." And she ran down the stairs.

Melanie got out of her make shift bed and walked to Dipper's bed. She started shaking the boy and telling him to wake up. He mumbled something about sleeping and she figured he was awake enough to not go back to sleep. Melanie took her bag and headed for the bathroom to change. As she left, Dipper opened his eyes. She had succeeded in waking him up. He slowly emerged from his bed, put on some shorts and deodorant and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Grunkle Stan was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading his newspaper. Mabel was at the stove, cooking what seemed to be pancakes or whatever she felt like feeding them this morning. Dipper felt a hand pat his back. "There, you're up." said Melanie as she reached the coffee machine to pour a cup of coffee. As Dipper followed her, she gave him the first cup she had filled and made herself another. "Thanks." murmured Dipper.

They all sat down for breakfast as Mabel served four plates of pancakes with raspberries. "They look delicious." Said Melanie

"I hope they are." Said Mabel as she cut a piece of hers after pouring a generous amount of maple syrup on it. "Yep, they're good." She declared as she took a bite.

They all started eating while Grunkle Stan finished reading his paper and assigned jobs to everyone for the day. Mabel would work in the shop; Dipper would do the tours while Stan welcomed the tourists, job he will most probably use to force them to spend more. He then noticed Melanie was here too. "You can follow Dipper around so he can teach you about the tour in case you need to do it one day."

Dipper rolled his eyes and continued eating his pancakes. At least Grunkle Stan had accepted Melanie as part of the family and was going to use her to work for free; and he wasn't throwing her out on the streets. The kids finished their breakfast mostly in silence and got to their jobs as soon as the clients came. Even though she knew the Mystery Shack was a scam, Melanie was still glad to know all of its secrets today.


	6. Magic Lesson

The tour was pretty much the way Melanie had imagined it would be. Dipper even seemed confident about what he was presenting; enough to earn amazed "oohs" and "aahs" from the tourists. Melanie listened carefully, pretty sure Dipper invented some of these on the spot. During the tour he would look at her while the tourists took pictures and he would imitate their stupidity by making funny faces of them seeing the absurdity of the shack's attractions. Melanie would smile or even laugh, earning annoyed glances from the tourists.

Several tours followed, until Dipper decided to go on a lunch break. There weren't many tourists anyway because the shack didn't offer food; so they were left alone for a while. Mabel had made some sandwiches for everyone, saying she was too tired for anything else. Grunkle Stan was counting the money they had made, a smile on his lips growing bigger with each bill he counted. Melanie and Dipper thankfully sat down and ate their sandwiches _. God, standing up and walking all morning is tiring!_ Once Grunkle Stan finished counting his money, he turned to Melanie.

"So, who are you exactly?" he asked. Melanie had feared this moment, but at least her answer was ready. "Don't you dare lie to me; I know a lie when I see it. And you were about to lie." Stan surprised Melanie. How could he know? True he was a professional con man after all, but she was good at lying. Anyway, she had to tell the truth now, or else Stan would be suspicious of her and maybe throw her out and she didn't want that. And so she did, even though she knew he could throw her out because of the truth as well.

Dipper couldn't believe Melanie was actually telling Stan the truth. Did this girl even know how to lie? Did she care at all who knew about her little secret? Could he trust her if she could not keep secrets? He didn't know how to answer his questions; but the look of disbelief on Mabel's face showed him she shared his concerns. At least, Grunkle Stan seemed satisfied with her story and when she finished he said:

"Wow kid, you have quite an imagination. That's probably why you get along with Dipper so much; but don't go on thinking all of that is true." He patted her head and headed for the shop.

The teens looked at each other in bewilderment. Was Grunkle Stan just going to keep dismissing the supernatural as he had for years, even after Dipper showed him the Journal? Not that it was a problem, it helped Melanie stay here ,and made Grunkle Stan one less thing to think about.

"What were you thinking?" asked Dipper once he was sure Grunkle Stan was out of hearing distance

"I was telling Mister Pines the truth, isn't that obvious." Melanie answered, smiling.

"Yes that was obvious, but what about your secret? Are you going to go sharing it about? What if he suddenly realized I was right all along and that the apocalypse was coming?" continued to ask Dipper, standing up

"He would probably join our cause. Dipper, you can't go on thinking everyone is against you. You great uncle Stan would never turn his back on you guys. He loves you." Nervously said Melanie, hoping it would calm Dipper down.

"See Dipper, I agree with Melanie. Although she maybe should not have told the whole truth about her, she knew she wasn't harming anybody." Joined in Mabel, trying to calm her brother as well.

"How could you have been so sure? " Dipper finally asked after a moment of silence.

"I couldn't, but I believe that Stan is a nice man who cares for you guys and I took my chances. Turns out I was right. If I had been wrong, I swear I would have done something about it to make the situation better. I swear Dipper, having a little faith in humanity helps." Melanie offered, standing up to face Dipper. Although he was slightly taller than she was and stronger too; Melanie didn't back down and looked at him from her brown eyes to his. She had no idea how it worked, but after a minute or so, Dipper's features softened and he relaxed.

"Okay, you make your own decisions; but don't go crying to me if I goes all wrong."

"Thanks Dipper" she looked at him as if expecting a sign that he wanted to hug it out or something. Instead he punched her arm, and she punched his back, a smile on her face.

The children got back to work soon after and closed the shop at around 5 pm. Dipper had even let Melanie lead a tour to see what she had learned. She surprisingly did a very good job, inventing details of her own to the "amazing" stories of the creatures of the shack. Mabel, on the other hand, was very tired from running the cash register for a whole day, and Melanie proposed to cover for her tomorrow; or at least share the time. Melanie had found her first day here both interesting and very tiring. Grunkle Stan joined them on the porch with four cans of soda and they all drank while watching the sun lowering in the sky.

Now was a good time opportunity to teach Dipper some magic thought Melanie. She looked at him and gestured to the forest.

"Um Grunkle Stan, we're going to go in the forest for a while; you know, to do some adventuring." Dipper casually said to Stan rising from the bench. Mabel looked at him as if asking if she could come. Dipper replied by the negative, thinking it could be dangerous for her.

"Another time." He proposed.

She nodded. Melanie stood up as well and followed Dipper into the forest.

"So, has the kid got a crush on her yet?" Grunkle Stan asked Mabel, taking another sip of his soda.

"Nah, I don't think so. He treats her like me, so it seems it won't go anywhere." Mabel answered looking at her twin brother walking along this girl who she knew nothing about just a day earlier. She was pretty, there was no denying that; but she didn't have the charm Wendy seemed to have. She was much too similar to Dipper for him to have a crush on her. At least that would be one less worry for her, because a Dipper in love was the hardest to manage.

As Dipper and Melanie got farther into the forest; the light began to darken and the noise of the edge of the forest dimed. They reached a spot where they could neither be seen or heard by anyone and sat down on the grass.

"So, what do you want to teach me?" asked Dipper eagerly

"First I need to see what you can do." Replied Melanie, her gaze fixing on a plant as if she had already begun meditating.

"Well I can do protection spells, some fire and …" Dipper began.

"I don't need you to tell me, I want you to show me. I need it to measure your capacity." Melanie looked at him, her eyes brighter than before. She was filled with magic, Dipper could feel it. She said he had more than her but he couldn't remember a time where he had held as much magic as she had now.

"Fine." He said, before closing his eyes and concentrating on turning on that valve that controlled magic inside him. The image was weird but that's how he saw his magic coming to him. Slowly he felt his body get warmer, and magic fill his being. He opened his eyes and looked at Melanie who was staring straight at him. He focused, reciting an incantation, and a shield appeared around Melanie and him. He brought down the shield to create a fire on a bush next to Melanie. He let the fire grow before turning it out.

"I can also read runes and put power into them. I can summon a force to push back an enemy. And" he hesitated, "I've been trying to levitate lately."

"Levitate? That's good. Can you show me what you've got so far?"

Dipper sat down and closed his eyes, imagining the ground getting farther from him and his body floating above the ground. He pronounced the incantation and waited. At first he still felt his body firmly pressed to the ground. Then he felt he was becoming lighter, thinking it was just an illusion. When he was sure he could not feel the ground underneath him anymore he slowly opened his eyes. He had succeeded! He was a mere inch above the ground. His joy to finally be able to do it released his focus and dropped to the forest floor. Melanie smiled at him.

"That's good. That's very good. You seem to be able to practice with yourself well, at least for easy and harmless spells."

"Summoning a force to push a monster is dangerous!" complained Dipper. " and I almost got killed by the monster."

"That's because you didn't practice enough before."

"Can you stop being so condescending? I'm nice enough to be your student, so you won't go on treating me like a kid who can't take care of himself!"

"Okay, sorry. I just thought that with the amount of magic here you would have accomplished more; but without a mentor it's hard, I can only agree. So let's make a deal. First I help you channel your energy better; then teach you a few spells; and finally we can all be friends hopefully."

"I don't like deals, so I'm not going to shake on it; but I think that sounds good." Replied Dipper, suspicious

"Haha, don't worry Dipper. Sorry for the reference to Bill. He's not anywhere near us or I would be able to feel him. "Melanie grabbed Dipper's hand, an electric shock running from her to him." Sorry, when I summon magic but don't use it, it finds a way to escape my body. Now grab my other hand and close your eyes. I hope I can do this right. If I do, you will be able to hear me inside your head."

"What will you be doing there? Why are you going inside my head for?"

"I'm just looking to connect with you on the spiritual level. Also, I need to establish a connection to your soul and mind in order to show your body the bonds where it can improve magic. Don't worry, you will be with me the whole time, or at least your spirit will be."


	7. Learning from mistakes

Dipper looked at Melanie, startled. Look through his soul and mind? What did she mean by that? He wondered if he should trust her with things like that, things that were so deeply his he didn't know how she could access them.

"You want to do this or not?" Melanie asked, probably annoyed by how slow his decision was. "We can do it another time if you want." She added. She released his hand with a look of concern. She actually cared, thought Dipper. So she didn't mean to hurt him; he decided. He grabbed her hands and looked deeply into Melanie's eyes.

"Okay, do what you need to do. I'm ready." He declared.

"Are you sure?" she asked, her concern still audible in her voice

"Yes, I'm sure." Answered Dipper, although he certainly wasn't going to be if she continued to doubt his choice.

They both closed their eyes and Dipper's other senses became heightened. He could feel the blades of grass brushing against his legs, the softness of Melanie's hands, and hear the silence around him.

"Wow, your mind is a labyrinth!" Melanie's voice exclaimed inside his head. "Most people don't have that much stored in their heads."

"Is that a compliment?" Dipper asked, focusing hard on sending his thoughts to Melanie.

"It is, but don't focus so hard. I can hear you fine when you think normally. I'm in your head, remember? Okay, so first you need to focus on assembling your energy to create an image of yourself inside yourself. You need to pinpoint your energy"

"What, like creating an image of myself in my head?" Dipper asked, unsure of what she wanted him to do.

"More like thinking you're yourself in your own body. Imagine that you're in Dipper. I know it's weird, but it allows your energy to minimize and go through your body." Melanie explained. "Also, try to create that image in your head because that's where I am. You don't want to be lost in your own body."

Dipper focused on being in his own body, especially his mind because he really didn't want to get lost in there according to Melanie's tone. He tried as much as he could and even felt a shift as if his mind had changed places , but he could not see anything. It's not working, he thought.

"Yes it is. "he heard Melanie say back. "Open your eyes."

He did and there was Melanie in front of him, but they weren't in the forest anymore. They were in a labyrinth. She wasn't kidding, his mind was really a labyrinth. A smile grew on Melanie's face as she saw he had achieved that part of the process.

"We don't have all day though, so I'll just show you around for now." Melanie said

She started walking out of the labyrinth until she found a river.

"That's the river of life, it holds your energy. That's where we travel." She walked over to the river bank and a small boat appeared out of nowhere. Dipper followed as she stepped and sat in it. The boat sprang to life and started moving down the river.

"So where are we going?" Dipper asked. He knew they were probably going to the place where he stored magic because that was what she wanted to teach him about. She wanted to show him how to control it better, but Dipper thought the center of control for magic would have been the brain. And since they had just left it, it couldn't be where they were going.

"You're probably not going to like this." Warned Melanie. Dipper nodded, his heart going faster in fear. "You know when people talk about 'gut feeling' and doing what your 'gut tells you'? " Again Dipper nodded, not liking where this was going. "Well, that's where we're heading, your gut. Not the literal gut, but the figurative one: the source of all magic."

Dipper's eyes widened but he managed to keep his cool. He swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat and waited to see what his figurative gut would look like. Not the best place to bring a girl when you happened to be sitting all alone in a forest, hand in hand… what was he thinking about? It was okay to visit his gut, especially if it wasn't the real one and it had magic properties. They traveled down the river for a while and Melanie finally stopped the boat near what looked like a huge furnace.

Unfortunately, the tunnel it formed looked enough like an intestine for Dipper to feel weird about being here with Melanie. They were in his gut, like seriously, how weirder could it get? ( _They could go even lower in his body_ thought a part of him. _No, gross_! Thought another.) They stepped out of the boat which disappeared( he had to learn to do that), and Melanie headed into Dipper's gut. As they walked farther and farther into the tunnel, the light got brighter, but it wasn't getting warmer surprisingly.

"Why isn't it getting warmer? The light is getting brighter, it should be getting warmer. We should be at very high temperatures right now, it would be impossible for us to survive." Dipper asked, worried he might actually be hurt in his figurative gut. ( _God, he had to stop of it this way!)_

"Nah don't worry. Because we're beings of pure energy, we don't feel things like warmth or anything that is sensor related except sight because, well, we need it to see where we're going." Melanie answered as if it were obvious, never even looking at Dipper as she said. She just looked ahead as if fascinated by what was lying there.

They reach what seemed to look like a giant ball of light, sort of like the sun. Melanie turned to Dipper and explained:

"So this is your center of magic. When you are not using magic, that is where it will go. It can only hold up to a certain amount, but you can stretch it with practice, sort of like a muscle. The more you practice, the more it holds. You see those little tunnels coming out of it?" She pointed to the ceiling where canals of light sprang from the sun-like ball and went separate ways. Dipper nodded as he saw them. "They run through your body and distribute the magic to where you need it. It goes everywhere but mostly two places: your brain and your feet."

"Why my feet?" asked Dipper, confused.

"Because when you activate your magic, your turn open a magic valve, or whatever, and in order to do so you need to take the magic from somewhere else. Your feet are touching the ground which is full of magic to the brim, so it borrows it from the earth. That's why it's harder to do magic when your feet aren't touching the ground. The more of you that touches the ground, the more you will absorb. This is why we particularly like the legs crossed position, like what we're doing in real life right now." Melanie explained.

"Why do we have this reservoir of magic if we just take it from the earth then?" asked Dipper, fascinated by what Melanie was saying. He had never thought of it this way before.

"That's for emergencies only. If you use it, it means you can't do otherwise. It holds only a small portion of what it channels when you borrow it from the earth; and using it usually either makes you pass out, or it can kill you. So I wouldn't use it if I were you." Melanie warned him, a sudden serious tone in her voice.

"Did you ever use it? " Dipper asked. "I don't mean to get into your personal stuff or anything." He added when he saw the reproachful look on her face.

"Don't worry; I'm here to share my experience with you anyway." She started, hesitating whether she should tell her tale. "It happened to me twice, and none of them are very nice to remember. The first time was when I found out how to fly. I rose from the ground, and after a few seconds of flying around my room, I began to feel dizzy and I fell to the ground. I was at about 2 meters high when I fell, and I broke my wrist and badly hurt a few ribs." Dipper made a face of pain as he imagined that happening to him. It must not have been funny. "The second time" Melanie continued " was when I decided to open a portal for the first time. It was winter and there was about a meter of snow surrounding me. I had learned my lesson from the first time and had brought a piece of the earth in the form of a bouquet of flowers. I hid them against my skin under my sweaters and coat and began the incantation. At first, everything seemed to be fine. I felt a bit tired after a while, but that was just the spell taking a part of my energy to create something new. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't told anyone where I was; so when I collapsed as soon as the portal had opened, it took patrols two days to find me. My parents were worried sick, and I couldn't help wondering if it was just because I didn't have enough power or if it was because I wasn't connected enough to the earth. I asked the hospital where they put the flowers I had under my shirt, but when the nurse said they found no flowers and even checked my report, I began to worry. So I waited until everyone was gone and looked at my chest. And there they were, the flowers I had brought. Some violets and daisies, with a few lilies. I never was good with flower bouquets, and now everyone who looks at the permanent tattoo on my chest knows it." Melanie turned silent and Dipper kept looking at her, bewildered. Looking at her, he would have never guessed she committed mistakes in her own time or that those mistakes would almost cost her her life.

"Could you show me those flowers one day?" he asked shyly. He knew they were on her chest and he didn't want to sound like a complete pervert; but looking at physical proof of what magic could do seemed like a cool thing.

"I don't know. I haven't shown them to anyone before, even my family. I always wear a shirt over my bathing suit on the rare times I go swimming." She answered, surprisingly calm.

"If you don't want to it's completely okay with me." Dipper assured her.

"Thanks, but if I would want to share such a secret with someone, it would be you. I mean, we're in this together now, aren't we? We might actually die, so it's worth a shot." Melanie punched Dipper's arm lightly with a huge smile, and he did the same back to her. "Come on; let's get out of your body before it's too dark outside for us to go back to the shack."


	8. Don't Worry, Be Happy

When Dipper opened his eyes again, he was back to his sitting position in the forest. Melanie was in front of him. She stood up and stretched. Dipper did the same, wondering how much time they had spent in that position. The forest was darker than before and it seemed like night could fall any second. They headed back to the shack by the way they had come. Grunkle Stan had gone inside it seemed, but Mabel was still outside when they came in sight of the shack.

"Where have you guys been?" asked Mabel as she came running towards them. "Night is coming. I was even considering going into the forest to look for you." She sounded relieved to see them.

"Going after us would have been a bad idea. It would have been hard to find us in the forest since you didn't know which direction we took and we weren't making any sound." Explained Dipper. "And we probably couldn't have heard you. Don't worry, we're back now, safe and sound. We were only gone" he looked at his watch "two hours? Wow, that didn't feel like two hours at all. "He glanced at Melanie as if asking her how it could have taken so much time, and she answered by looking accusingly at Mabel as if saying Mabel was more important right now. "Don't worry Mabel, we're both perfectly fine." He closed the distance between him and his twin to hug her.

Melanie stood there, looking as the two twins became one family. She hoped nothing would ever break this family apart. "You will never see Dipper turn twenty." A voice murmured in her head. Like she had to be reminded that someone's days were numbered. Looking at the twins, she knew she would do whatever it took to be that person. She could not bear to see Mabel sad if her brother died. As the twins broke apart and walked into the house, she followed them. Dipper turned around to share a complicit smile with her. She returned it, trying hard to not look sad. That night they went to bed in their shared room and slept a full night with no nightmare and no visits from Bill. Melanie even thought they could have a normal life and maybe even make it out all alive. However, she knew it was a lie, that things couldn't all be well forever.

The next day, the teens went their ways around the shack, Melanie helping Mabel in the shop this time. For the following week, they continued on the same routine : helping Stan run the shack in the day and learn magic in the evenings. Dipper learned more and more about controlling his magic, what to do and what not to do at all costs. Mabel still had time with Melanie during the day, but she could see her brother and Melanie becoming closer and closer. They spent more time together, even when they were doing chores. ( _God, she thought, at least they're becoming close friends so they'll run like one machine when Bill strikes_. _Also, Dip is finally getting a friend in this town_!)

Dipper enjoyed his lessons with Melanie more and more. He learned to like the teenage girl, even when she looked at him like he was nothing more than a speck of dust; but she was doing so less and less. He could see that with very skill he achieved, she admired him more and more; and the more she was proud of him. She told him more about her life, and her secrets. He learned that behind the knowledgeable witch was a rebel who had always done what she wanted with her life, not always choosing the smartest path, and not caring of the consequences of her actions, even if it would affect her in a bad way. She was stubborn and would not stop until she reached her goal, even if it totally destroyed her. She was also very proud of her achievements, but at the same time, she was scared of opening herself to others. Dipper noticed she would sometimes share girl stories with Mabel, but her deepest secrets and most personal stories, she reserved for Dipper.

Whatever she told him, however interesting was the story she was talking about; Dipper could not help but remember how she had opened up to him the first time, during his first magic lesson. Her stories since then had never been as deep or as changing as the story of her flower tattoo. He tried to imagine what it could look like, even started to draw it once. She had seen him and had been mad at him for two days, not talking to him other than to give him advice when practicing magic. He had destroyed the drawing, said he would never tell anyone and apologized. She finally forgave him, but that only showed to him how much she cared about her mistakes. She didn't like to be reminded of them, she had told him. He had nodded, but the more she was secretive about it, the more he wanted to know. Like had she made other memorable mistakes? Did the tattoo give her any powers? He didn't ask them though, scared of her reaction.

On top of working on his skills all week, Dipper didn't get a visit from Bill; and neither did Melanie. Both of them thought it was a good sign that maybe Bill had forgotten them, but Mabel proposed that it was probably because he was too busy trying to create the apocalypse. After both Dipper and Melanie had told her to stop saying that, she had kept to herself. Maybe she didn't know what it was like to be haunted or possessed or anything, but she knew that they shouldn't think that everything was going to be fine. Sure, she didn't want the good times they had right now to end, but she knew better. She knew Bill would still push through his plans for the apocalypse and she was thankful that Melanie was still training Dipper as hard as ever. She was also sorry she could not defend herself, but she knew these two would protect her, if need be.

The week went by so fast; none of them knew what was happening. Costumers flew in and out of the shack, still impressed by the fake monsters and wonders. Soos came to visit one day, before moving out to join Melody in their new home. Melanie had always liked Soos as a cartoon in her dimension, and she loved him in this one as well. He also took a liking to her, saying as she first introduced herself that she was a girl version of Dipper if he had to believe Mabel. His visit was a break from the monotony of everyday life at the shack.

Melanie was glad how everything was moving along. Dipper was learning very quickly and become more and more agile with his spells. In a few months he could achieved her level of control and power, she believed. She had also tried to link with him on a personal level. She knew that because of Bill's warning they couldn't be best friends and all of that; but she still had to keep a cover. God only knew what Dipper would do if he found out what Bill had told her. She was good at lying when the others didn't know she was hiding something, but when they knew, she couldn't lie even if her life depended on it, and in this case, it kind of did.

Stan grew accustomed to Melanie in this week's time. He started to boss her around the shack at any time of the day, even including her in the "kids, where are my slippers?" Melanie was glad she could find a place of her own in the Pines family. They had adopted her as she had hoped they would. She didn't want those days to end. And neither did Dipper.

With every moment he spent with Melanie, Dipper felt more alive than ever before. She comforted him when he couldn't do a spell properly; cared for him when he hurt himself while performing a spell badly. And he even allowed her to hug him; more than once. He just felt so right with her, like if they continued like this nothing would go wrong. To him, when Melanie was around, Bill Cipher was just a horrible memory at the back of his head that he just wanted to forget about.

One day, exactly a week after Melanie had arrived in Gravity Falls; they had a party which included a cake baked by Mabel and nothing more. Mabel and Stan were waiting in the kitchen as Dipper led the blindfolded Melanie. When she took out the blindfold and they erupted in a badly sung "Happy one week home"; she burst into tears. Thankfully, Mabel knew what to say to reassure the guys she was alright and she didn't have to tell anyone she was actually sad. She was crying because the hope on their faces was almost too beautiful to think it would soon be ripped out of them. To think that one of them might die from saving the others, and that nothing could be done about it; she couldn't bear to see Dipper smile from ear to ear as he made an effort to sing to her.

Dipper felt confused when he saw Melanie cry at her party. He understood what Mabel was explaining, but he couldn't bear to see Melanie so sad. He came to her and hugged her tight, as if thinking that by making her breathing space smaller, she would not be able to take in as much grief as she had been before. Weirdly it was working because as soon as he wrapped his arms around her, she closed hers around him and fit her head in the crook of his neck. Her tears fell wet on Dipper's shoulder, but he didn't mind. Melanie's body was warming his own and he felt his heartbeat go faster and faster. He realized too late what was going on and as he did, he tensed and pulled back. _Couldn't be,_ he thought. _How could hugging your best friend make you want to suddenly kiss them? That didn't make sense._

Melanie felt Dipper pull back, and sadly let him go. Maybe hugging a girl was still a bit weird for him, especially if said girl was crying on his shoulder like he was already dead. No, she couldn't think about that. She dried her tears and thanked them with all her heart. They ate the cake and prepared for another magic practice and another night.

As the teens got in bed this night, Melanie was so happy she had almost forgotten what she came here for. Unfortunately, Bill wasn't so keen on the idea of letting them be. As they started to drift off to sleep, he appeared to the three of them and delivered his worst message yet.

"Oh hi kids. Just wanted to check how you were doing. I'll be ready in three days for your doom. Until them, good luck trying to sleep with those nightmares!"


	9. Nightmares

The three teens opened their eyes at the sound of Bill's voice. They had thought they would be in the mindscape and Bill would still be there to tease them, but they woke up in the real world. Melanie sat legs crossed on her bed and closed her eyes. Dipper did the same, thinking about what she had told him about reaching other places in his mind. He had never actually tried but he was confident he should try. Mabel watched as they focused, Melanie squinting her eyes as if perplexed. Dipper had achieved nothing when Melanie opened her eyes in terror.

"I can't access it. I can't access the Mindscape. " She closed her eyes again and focused. Dipper opened his eyes and looked as she tried again, or did something else Dipper couldn't possibly do. Again, she opened her eyes as if she was pushed back by an invisible barrier.

"I can't go anywhere. All portals are closed, I can't even read your mind. Bill closed them all. He's going to come back, I just know it." Melanie declared, fear audible in her voice.

"Are you thinking the same thing?" asked Dipper, worried about the answer.

"I think so." Answered Melanie briefly.

"What is it?" asked Mabel, who had been quiet so far and was now confused by what was happening.

"Bill is closing all our access so we can't get support from outside the town, maybe even outside the shack; and he's scaring us so we'll give up." Melanie said, looking at Mabel with worry.

"You mean he's sending us nightmares?" asked Mabel, scared.

"Yeah, I think so. Probably the worst we've had yet." Melanie said quietly as if not hearing the truth would make it less real.

"Hey, hey. Don't scare us to death. Maybe the nightmares won't be that bad; and maybe we can get outside help. Don't get all depressed, French girl." Dipper said, hoping his voice sounded more assured than he felt. He couldn't bear to see Mabel sad.

Melanie turned to look at Dipper. Whatever hope that they might stay hopeful for three more days suddenly turned to dust. Tears were appearing in her eyes. Whatever nightmares Bill gave her before she came here, she clearly didn't want those or worst again. Dipper stood up, heading for Mabel's bed, and whispered something in her ear.

"Go to sleep Mabel, and if you have a nightmare just will yourself to wake up if you can. And if you can't sleep anymore, you can always wake me up. Just try to get some sleep." He hugged her and went back to his own bed.

Mabel put down her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. Melanie had dried her tears and looked at her in a motherly way. She started singing a slow and sweet tune. Her voice was like melted honey and in a matter of minutes, Mabel was asleep. When she was sure Mabel was sleeping, Melanie turned to see if Dipper was sleeping yet. He looked drowsy, but wasn't sleeping yet. When he saw Melanie looking at him, he opened his eyes.

"I don't want to have nightmares again." Said Melanie. "I know it sounds selfish and you're going to have them too; but I never thought I would go back there."

"Can I ask specifically why you were crying before? I don't think I would cry because of a nightmare."

"That's because you probably only had the scary type of nightmares. I mean, did you ever kill your family in your sleep? Got raped? See everything and everyone you loved turn to oblivion and you being the last human on the planet? I did horrible things in those nightmares. I killed my own children. I opened my own body and ripped my stomach out. I'm never, never, going back there." She paused, tears back in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be strong for all of us, but in front of these nightmares, I'm not strong anymore. I'm nothing." She sobbed.

Dipper got out of his bed and sat on hers, taking her hand to comfort her. She sobbed again and pulled her hair back. "I'm sorry." She said.

"Don't be. It's normal to be scared of your fears. Maybe you should tell yourself that your fear of those nightmares is even bigger than the fear in the nightmares, and maybe they won't be as bad." Dipper reassured her, a small smile crossing his lips.

Melanie smiled as well before throwing herself in Dipper's arms. He closed his arms around her and let her cry as much as she wanted. Dipper's arms felt warm around her skin, his breath soft against her neck. Realizing she was crying when Dipper would probably have horrible nightmares as well, she brushed her tears dry and let go of Dipper.

"I better get some sleep and so should you." She said. Dipper could feel the sadness in her voice, but also her stubbornness. She wanted to win that battle, whatever it took from her. He admired her so much at that moment; he felt the urge to kiss her again. He fought it back, wishing his crush would manifest at any other moment than now. He could not fall in love with her now; the apocalypse was coming in three days. However he tried to reason himself, he still thought everything Melanie did was amazing. The last time he had had a crush on someone, it was Wendy and he had gotten friend zoned. He was better at controlling his emotions now, but he still hoped Melanie would not notice. Love was the last thing they needed to distract them now. They had to double the time spent practicing magic so he could achieve the level he needed.

Dipper and Melanie eventually got back in their respective beds and tried to sleep. After a few minutes of sleeping, they were awakened by Mabel's screams. Dipper ran to her bed and hugged her tight, whispering quiet words of comfort in her ear, and rubbing her shoulders. Melanie looked at them, and reminded herself that she could never let them be separated. She saw Mabel crying and she knew what type of nightmare she had gone through. And she also knew that speaking about them or writing them down, although it hurt at first, allowed to lighten the burden they put on your shoulders.

"Mabel, do you want to tell us what it was about? Or maybe write it down somewhere? It always seemed to help me feel better when I had nightmares." She offered.

"Are you crazy? Asking her to relive the nightmare she just had? She went through it once; she doesn't want to go through it twice." Dipper was angry at how unconsciously stupid Melanie's offer sounded. Yet, as he looked at the worry on her face, he understood that she only meant well.

Mabel looked at Melanie.

"I think I want to tell you, I just don't know how to say it or where to start. It was all a jumble of the worst things I could possibly do. I think the worse was when Dipper died trying to protect me because I didn't know how to protect myself." She sobbed and sunk deeper in Dipper's arms.

"Don't worry sis, you're not a burden. You're our own bundle of joy. We would never smile or be happy if you weren't there. We need you." Dipper assured her.

"Thanks." Whispered Mabel. "That helped a bit. I think I'll tell you more tomorrow if I can get them more organized in my head. I don't think I'm going back to sleep for a while."

"I have an idea." Said Melanie. "How about one of us sleeps until he gets nightmares, and when he does the others wake him up, so he doesn't have to suffer all of it. The other two can talk or play games during that time, to lighten the mood and think about something else."

"I think that's as good an idea as any other." Said Dipper. "Who gets the first turn?" he asked.

"I'm not sleeping any time soon." Said Mabel.

"You're the one who has to learn a lot tomorrow so I'd say you, Dipper. Go to sleep." Said Melanie.

Dipper grunted but nevertheless headed back to bed. He heard Mabel and Melanie gossip about guys and other stuff as he quickly fell asleep.

He had barely gotten an hour of sleep before the nightmares came. They were like always at first, being chased by a monster in the forest; but as soon as the monster came closer he saw that it was no monster at all. It was Melanie. Or at least, it looked like Melanie in some way, but worse. Her eyes were black and looked like the bottomless pits, her teeth were fangs and she was covered in blood. An axe was in her hand. She ran towards Dipper and began to swing down her axe to kill him. He grabbed her arm and tried to twist it to make her release the axe. As he succeeded, she fell to the ground in pain, crying and yelling it was all his fault. She never would have come here if it wasn't for him. She wouldn't be so close to her death.

Melanie saw Dipper get agitated in his sleep and quickly shook him awake.

"It's okay, you're with us now. Nothing is going to happen to you." He sat on the bed as she did the same. Mabel looked at them, worried. Dipper tried his best not to look like some part of him wished to die before Bill came, and grabbed Melanie's hand in comfort. She let him slouch on her side and passed her hand in his curls as his heartbeat slowed down.

"Would you care to share your nightmare? Or part of it?" asked Melanie, her voice sweet with concern.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll say the worst like Mabel did." He said, thinking he could get away without telling Melanie the whole truth. "I was followed by a monster in the forest, and as it got closer, I realized that" he paused and looked at Melanie "it was you. The monster, it was you, but worse. You had an axe and you tried to kill me and then" he paused again, not sure he wanted to say this, but realizing he should tell the truth, "then you said it was all my fault. My fault you came here. My fault you would die. It's not my fault, is it?" he asked her, fearing the answer.

"No, of course not. It would never be your fault Dipper. Don't worry, it was just a nightmare." She hugged him and waited for him to calm down. When he did, she released him and declared:

"Well, I guess it's my turn." She slipped in her bed as the twins reunited on Mabel's bed.

She soon fell asleep. And then the nightmares came. She saw the familiar purple light surround her and she woke up in her usual nightmare, but this time worse. A figure came in her sight, and stopped next to the table where her naked body was laid bare. A piece of metal that looked like it could hurt you just by being there appeared in the person's hand before it spoke:

"There we are again Melanie. So where am I going to hurt you this time?" said the nightmarish version of Dipper as he poked his instrument as hard as he could in Melanie's stomach, a hand on her mouth preventing her from screaming.


	10. Leader

As the teens arrived for breakfast the next morning, Grunkle Stan could have sworn they had spent all night talking and not sleeping. They must have gotten around 3 hours of sleep each, waking each other up about every hour or so. They wondered how Grunkle Stan didn't hear their screams but apparently he had slept like a log and wasn't aware of anything that was going on. Melanie was used to having those nightmares, and so was Dipper to a lesser degree; but Mabel hadn't been ready for them and she still shook from the last one as they descended to get breakfast. Seeing how tired they were, Grunkle Stan decided to let them off work for the morning so they could catch up on sleep. As soon as Melanie and Dipper had taken their coffee and Mabel had eaten; they went to the attic.

There, Mabel slept on the floor with a pillow, asking Melanie and Dipper to wake her up when she started to get agitated, fearing what would happen, but needing sleep to function normally. In the meantime, the other two would practice as much magic as they could. They couldn't go in the forest because that could rise Stan's suspicions and Mabel couldn't sleep there, so they had to keep to calm spells. Melanie wasn't happy with this, she needed more time to teach Dipper her full knowledge. She had started with the basics and had begun to teach him anything he wanted; unfortunately not always focusing on what was important in a battle or an emergency. She had then thought they would have the time needed to learn everything possible; but now their days were numbered and they needed to be quick.

By the time Dipper finally managed to close his mind to Melanie, in the goal of preventing Bill from messing with his mind if he tried; Mabel was tossing and turning. Melanie woke her up and comforted her; knowing they would have three more days of this, and not knowing how much they could take without emotionally and psychologically breaking down. Mabel then sat and watched them work, insisting that Melanie teach her a few things as well. She decided to teach Mabel how to create a weapon out of thin air. It was hard but not as hard as levitating a car or teleporting, all which Dipper had done.

"Okay Mabel, so what weapon do you want? Maybe something that doesn't hurt you if you grab it the wrong way like a knife; because the spell can go wrong before it goes right." Melanie started.

"I think she'll want a grappling hook." Added Dipper. " Always had a thing for them, I don't know why."

The memory of the grappling hook made Mabel smile, and she nodded.

"It could hurt you if it lands the wrong way, but if that's what you want then we can start." Melanie said. "So first, you need to close your eyes. This is the first time you're doing this so you want to take it slow. You close your eyes and listen to my voice." Guided Melanie. "You breath out and as you do so you get rid of anything in your head that isn't my voice and the grappling hook. You can do that as many times as you deem necessary. When you're done, nod your head." Melanie paused and looked at Mabel, waiting for her signal.

Dipper didn't say a word throughout the whole exchange. The way Melanie was treating Mabel as she taught her how to create a grappling hook was different from the way she taught him anything. Maybe it was because Mabel had just woken up from a nightmare, but she was being especially nice and confident, making sure Mabel knew she was capable of doing it. No such thing could be said of when she was with Dipper. With him, she explained the process and with every fail asked him to try again and again until he got it right. She was relentless, but in a way, that's what made him progress so much. She pushed his limits so far he was amazed at his own powers. Still, trust and friendliness could have helped, there was no denying that. Was he jealous of the way she treated Mabel? He wanted her to be like that with him ,sweet and forgiving, nice and caring; but all he got was a friendship earned by failures and victories.

She was proud of him nevertheless. Whenever he succeeded, she would drop the act and applaud, pat him on the back or even hug him. Any of those gestures made Dipper's heart race until he could not bear to see her without looking like an idiot. He preferred to look at her when she wasn't looking, like now. She was focused on helping Mabel, and she was so nice towards her, her know-it-all remarks gone. He loved the way she braided her hair when the day got warm, the way she talked with her hands more than with her vocabulary, the way she smiled at him when he told a joke, the way she put her hands on her hips when she was mad or angry, the way she trusted him enough to let him comfort her when she had had her recurrent nightmare again, the way she was too proud to see anyone but him see her cry. He was lost in thought when a grappling hook appeared out of nowhere above his head and knocked him down.

"Oww, where did that come from?" He complained.

"From Mabel's mindscape." Said Melanie, as if it were obvious. "She succeeded on her first try, well done!" Melanie high fived Mabel as the girl jumped in the hair, grappling hook in hand and yelled "Grappling hook!" Dipper was glad the smile on Mabel's face was back for the time being, and he realized he must have been smiling like an idiot as he was contemplating how amazing Melanie was. _Damn it!_

The rest of the morning went more or less the same way. Dipper learned more and more nasty spells to mess up with Bill and his monsters while Mabel tried to get as much sleep as she could.

"What do you think Bill is bringing to our world from his Mindscape?" asked Dipper, realizing they didn't really know what they were up against.

"I don't know, really. Like I told you, I just know he wants to destroy you and your family. How he gets there is his deal. I know not knowing is the worst, but I can't access the mindscape at all. I tried, trust me, but he's blocking us. Whatever he has in store for us he wants it to be a surprise." Melanie shared then added "I know you're as scared as me, maybe more, but there's nothing we can do now except practice and try to sleep."

Dipper's worry was far more visible on his face when Mabel wasn't around, or when she was sleeping. He kept a calm face when she was with him, keeping his cool to let her think that he had the situation in his control, which he really didn't. He knew a faked confidence couldn't fool Mabel, but a depressed mood and tears wouldn't help her in any way. Melanie was keeping a cover as well, knowing fully well that Mabel was the most fragile of the three and that she needed with Dipper to be strong for all of them.

After their morning practice session, the kids took back their unpaid part time jobs at the Mystery Shack. Mabel worked at the shop and Dipper guided the tour, while Melanie jumped from one to the other, helping out and keeping them awake by distributing unhealthy amounts of coffee and Mabel juice. The afternoon dragged on for what felt like days, which for once was good considering the schedule they had for the next three days, which were down to almost two now. When Grunkle Stan let them go at around 5 pm, Dipper and Melanie ran for the forest while Mabel stayed behind to have some time with Candy and Grenda who had come over to have some fun with Mabel after her work.

Dipper was eager to get to practice the really hard spells he had worked for for a week now; but Melanie didn't seem to want to do that today. Instead of settling down in one place of the forest, she made them run farther and farther into the woods. As it got darker and darker, Dipper asked how far she planned on going. Melanie didn't answer but kept walking on, the bushes becoming too thick to run. Dipper followed, worried she might have been too lost in her thoughts to remember he was here and what they were doing. Not once did she look back at him, not once did she say anything. He was getting worried about the precious time ticking away, and looked at his watch. They had been in the forest for nearly an hour. He stopped, and called to Melanie:

"Hey, we should stop; going farther into the forest would be a bad idea. It's even more dangerous out there and it would take a really long time to get back home after."

Melanie kept going, slowing down for the time he had talked. He didn't follow her and instead, tried to convince her to stay, or go back unless she told him where she was going.

"I'm not your puppet anymore, you can't go somewhere without telling me why and expect me to follow you like a dog. I'm putting my foot down and I'm not moving until you tell me why you keep walking farther into the forest." Dipper sat on a rock nearby and looked as Melanie stopped and turned to face him. A smile spread on her face from ear to ear and looked like she was holding in a giggle. She walked back to him and sat down at his feet, still not saying anything.

She started to play with the grass, and he waited for her to tell him what to do; but she didn't seem to want to speak anytime soon. Time was ticking away.

"Melanie, are you going to help me practice my spells or not? If you're not, might as well go back."

She still didn't answer. Dipper sat down on the grass, cross-legged, and closed his eyes. If she would not help him, he would help himself.

He focused and when he opened his eyes, a ball of fire had formed in the palm of his hand. Melanie was looking at him as he aimed to project the ball of fire against a nearby tree. The next second the trunk was ablaze, and Dipper had already created a ball of water in his other hand which he now threw at the fire to extinguish it. When he was done, Melanie looked at him with approval and nodded.

"Well done" she said.

"Why weren't you talking before? It's not nice to ignore me that way? What is the point of going with me if you're not going to help me?" asked Dipper, angry at her innocent smile.

"The point is that you learn to listen to yourself rather than listen to others. For a whole week I have taught you the basics and things you wanted to know. I have guided you every step of the way, always helping you when you failed. You always listened to me, waited for me to say what we were going to do, waited for me to ask you to do something. You need to have a will of your own if you want to be our leader, Dipper. I won't be teaching you as much as you will be teaching yourself. We are our best teacher, we learn best from ourselves and our mistakes. Trust me; I know a lot about that." She sighted, looking awkwardly at her chest as if checking if her tattoo was still there. "I'm doing this to help you" she continued "to become our leader. That's who you are Dipper. I'm your mentor, but I'm no leader. You are." She sat down as if she was about to cry, and Dipper crouched next to her. She looked up to him, tears in her eyes. "For a long time, I thought I would be the leader because I knew more and because I was older. I was wrong, I realized it as I saw you pretend to your sister that you were not scared, pretend to me that you knew how scared I could be until you actually knew; you are the strongest of us and you protect us no matter the cost on your life. You are the leader, and I was wrong. I need to let you go and make your own choices. " Melanie paused, drying her eyes from the tears. " Will you lead us in battle against Bill, Dipper? "

"Of course, Melanie. Nothing else would never cross my mind. You're putting a huge weight on my shoulders though, I don't know if I can hold it." Dipper humbly said

"Oh you can, trust me. You're stronger than you think, Dipper, never forget that." Tears were back in her eyes. Dipper didn't know what made her so sad: the fact that she was not the strongest and he was, or the fact that they might die in two days. Whatever it was he replied:

"So are you, Melanie." He wrapped his arms around her and brought her to his chest. He came down to his knees to make the position more comfortable and stayed there until he knew she was feeling better, not until either of them found it uncomfortable. He had no idea how much love and compassion can go through a hug before he had actually tried, but it was remarkable. He liked the weight of Melanie on his chest and shoulders, the smell of her hair and neck, her small hands on his back. God, he loved her more than she could ever know, and in two days something bad may happen to her. He couldn't let her carry the burden of his love with her as they fought against the dark forces of Bill.


	11. Chapter 11

Melanie and Dipper spent all night practicing all the spells they would need against Bill and his army, or whatever he will bring from the Mindscape. Dipper took control of the session this time, only allowing Melanie to comment on how he did. She was proud of him, he could see it on her face. He could not help but remember the way she had opened up to him a few moments ago. She had laid herself bare for him and told him exactly what she felt, and he hadn't been man enough to do the same about his feelings. Probably because he knew she could never love him back; his only excuse was because of the upcoming apocalypse.

Practice went well and when night started to fall, they teleported to the edge of the forest before heading back to the shack. When they arrived home, Grunkle Stan came towards them as soon as they entered the house. His face was nothing like his usual old man money pinching face. He looked worried.

"Dipper, where have you been? Mabel just woke up from a nightmare and called your name. She wouldn't let me near her." Stan ran inside the house up to the attic, expecting the teens to follow him. They did so and found Mabel hugging her knees sitting on the floor and rocking back and forth. "There she is. Please help her; I don't like seeing her like this."

Dipper crouched down next to Mabel and asked her what was wrong.

"I don't want Stan here. Make him leave." she replied.

Dipper turned to Stan and motioned for the door.

"Come on Dipper, she matters to me as much as she does to you. I can't leave her like this."

"I don't think this is up to discussion, if you want her to speak, and then give her a chance to agree to talk by doing so in her terms. And her terms are you being out of the room." Dipper's voice was more assured and firm than ever before, his care for his twin audible. He had also grown weary with the challenges of the last few days.

Stan left the room with regret, and closed the door behind him. Melanie and Dipper were left with Mabel. Melanie joined them on the floor and they waited for Mabel to say something. She remained silent for a few minutes before lifting her head above her arms and saying:

"Well, I suppose one day is gone, kids. Ready to give up?" She opened her eyes and instead of her warm brown irises, she had slanted yellow eyes. A smirk appeared on her face as Dipper and Melanie stood up very quickly and retrieved against the door in fear. "Why are you scared of me, I'm not going to hurt you." Mabel stood up, staring at the other two still stuck to the door in front of her. In all the fumbling, Melanie had grabbed Dipper's hand and now let go of it as they both realized and blushed.

"Why are you possessing Mabel, Bill?" Asked Dipper, taking a step forward to look less afraid. "What do you want to tell us? Tell it now and let us be!"

Mabel crossed her arms sloppily. "Oh Pine Tree, you deceive me. I thought you and Bookworm would have been happy to see me." Bill said through Mabel. "I'm just here to remind you the apocalypse is coming along nicely. I hope you liked your nightmares from last night. I got special ones for tonight. You got away with too much sleep yesterday, can't let that happen again, now can we?" Mabel took a step towards Dipper and added: "You know Pine Tree, maybe you should tell the truth for once. Don't take Melanie as an example. Well, I got to go. Bye, kids!"

Mabel's eyes rolled back and her eyelids closed. When she opened them again, they were back to their original color. She looked at Melanie and Dipper and looked down in shame.

"How did Bill find a way to possess you Mabel?" asked Dipper, fearing the answer.

"Well, I may or may not have struck a deal with him." Answered Mabel, twisting her hands together. "I swear that he didn't do anything bad in return! I just fell asleep and woke up from a nightmare and he offered some sleep without nightmares as long as I gave him my body when you came home, so he could scare you even more, I think. I'm sorry, "she added as she saw the look of worry on Dipper's face, "I just wanted to sleep and I couldn't resist. Anyway, there are no bad side effects, are there?"

"If Bill didn't hurt your physical body, you should be fine. Just don't do this again, Mabel. We'll find a way to fight those nightmares, other than deals with Bill." Said Dipper. "How about we go get some diner before Stan gets angry at you shutting him out."

Mabel made a sad face but nevertheless followed Dipper, along with Melanie who had watched the exchange silently. She had never been possessed and didn't know how the two twins could feel like, neither had she had a sibling who had been so close to her. Her family had never really understood her and she had left them soon enough, only to realize now that she missed having a family. Even though the Pines could be her family now, she still felt bad for leaving her own alone in her dimension. She really needed to make better life choices, not that she regretted anything. Never regret anything, because at one time, it was exactly what you wanted; she told herself constantly.

After the stress from Mabel's possession came down, Dipper remembered what Bill had said before leaving: "You should tell the truth for once. Don't take Melanie as an example." Did Bill know about his crush on Melanie? Was it that obvious? Well he could read his mind so he guessed it must have been easy for Bill to know that kind of stuff. But what did he mean by "don't take Melanie as an example"? Was Melanie hiding something from him as well? Dipper dismissed it as the secret she had just told him in the forest, part of him fearing she might still be hiding things from him. Whatever she might be hiding, Dipper knew that if he asked, even nicely, she would never tell. He had to wait it out. The thought annoyed him because he only had two more days to figure it out, but that was the only way he could get the truth out of her.

The teens came downstairs to see Stan cooking, which was a thing Stan rarely did. If possible, Mabel looked even more ashamed than she had been upstairs. She was the reason Stan was so frustrated or sad he preferred to cook than do something else. Or maybe he was just feeling that if Mabel wasn't going to make diner, he was. Either way, it was Mabel's fault; and she knew it. She came up to him and apologized. He grunted, nodding his head in approval and brought what he had cooked to the dinner table where four sets of plates were already set out. They ate in silence, Mabel looking sadly at her plate, glancing at Stan in hope that he would smile and pretend everything was alright; but she knew it wasn't. Stan had been scared for her and she had preferred to let a dream demon possess her in order to ruin her family rather than lose another hour of sleep.

When they were done, Melanie took out all their plates and cleaned up everything as the Pines shared a silence that said it all about their family. Mabel was somehow the happiness of it, and when she became sad, it had huge repercussions on the whole family. Melanie thought she should tell her that tonight when she had another nightmare about her being useless. She clearly wasn't useless, both Dipper and Stan cared about her a lot. The teens said their goodnights to Stan and headed upstairs to get ready for bed.

Melanie got to sleep first because she had been the last one the night before, Dipper got second and Mabel chose to be third because they had let her sleep most of the morning and she had slept with her deal with Bill. Melanie didn't need her to say it a second time, she fell on her bed and drifted to sleep in less than a minute. For a while, she didn't have nightmares, her dreamscape creating her favorite world: Gravity Falls. It was a nice summer day and she was having a monster hunt with the twins. They had almost gotten in sight of the creature when Dipper turned to her and said "Watch this!" He took out a long knife from his backpack and started to stab Mabel, who was now naked for some reason. Melanie jumped, screaming at him to stop it, but he continued and when he was about to stick the knife in Mabel's private parts, Melanie was shaken awake by real life Mabel. She tried not to scream as she realized she was no longer in her nightmare but in the real world.

She sat up and waited for Dipper to fall asleep but he didn't. Instead, he pulled out a long knife from under his covers and planted it in Melanie's chest screaming that she was corrupted, corrupted to the very core. And he kept sticking the knife in Melanie and continued screaming until Melanie was shook awake by what she thought was real life Dipper. She shrank back from him as he tried to calm her. Seeing that she would not let him touch her, Dipper just sat on her bed.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Melanie pinched herself and when a bolt of pain rushed back, she decided she was not in the nightmare anymore. She sat normally on her bed and looked at Dipper.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered. He knew from her tone that she was hiding the truth, but he decided to let her be. She didn't seem to want a hug or anything, so he just went back to his bed and fell asleep, not at all ready for the wave of nightmares that was about to hit him.

Melanie turned to Mabel who was now knitting a sweater to pass the time. She gave Melanie another pair of needles and they knit together until Dipper started to get agitated. Mabel rose up from bed to wake him up when suddenly he got calmer, so she went back to her bed.

"Did the same happen to me?" Melanie asked.

"You mean, getting agitated then calm, like you're changing your mind midway? "asked Mabel. Melanie nodded. "Yeah, you did that too."

Melanie felt panic rush through her. She didn't want to have those nightmares all night. They were worse than before. When Dipper woke up and reacted to touch the same way as Melanie, Mabel was scared but nevertheless got to sleep. Melanie reached Dipper's bed and said:

"You had it to? The feeling it was a dream when it suddenly became the worst nightmare?"

"Yep, that sums it up. Also, false waking up." Dipper added. Melanie nodded.

Dipper wasn't really sure if he could trust this as the reality, but he took his chances and grabbed Melanie's hand as they watched over Mabel sleep.


	12. Trust No One

If they had gotten some sleep the night before, this was even worse. Every time they went to sleep, they were confident the beginning was going to be okay and then turn out bad; and every time they woke up they were suspicious of the others around them, making it hard to have any human contact that would have comforted them that everything was okay. Grunkle Stan didn't call them for breakfast at all this morning, and when Melanie decided to see if he was awake, she found a platter of toast, peanut butter and some orange juice on their doorstep with a note from Stan.

"Hi kids. Couldn't help but hear you scream last night. I hope you're alright but I thought you would be tired again and would want to get as much sleep as possible. So here's breakfast, or whatever." It was signed Grunkle Stan. Melanie brought it in their room, and began to share it with Mabel as it was Dipper's turn to sleep. He was beginning to get agitated but calmed down soon enough. Maybe if they had been fast enough they could have woken each other up after the first nightmare, but that was hard and if they woke him up, maybe he would be very suspicious of any of them.

Melanie and Mabel waited only a few minutes before Dipper tossed and turned again and Mabel rushed to wake him up before he had another one. They had found that out during the night. The nightmares just kept on going until you were shaken awake. You were never done with them, so they had decided to wake each other up after the second one because otherwise, they would have scared each other.

"Stan brought us breakfast." Said Melanie as Dipper slowly got out of bed. She moved to Dipper's bed to let Mabel sleep, and they ate in silence. "Maybe we should tell Stan what is going to happen." Said Melanie once Mabel was asleep. "Don't you think he deserves the right to know what's going to happen so he can prepare himself?" she looked at Dipper, while the boy finished swallowing his toast before speaking.

"You've got a point, but he's lived in ignorance since day one so he probably will just dismiss the idea." Dipper answered

"Well at least there's no harm done. Better be safe than sorry. If he knows something it might come in handy, you know?" Dipper nodded. Mabel threw her blanket around before slowing down.

"You know, Melanie, there's something I want to tell you." Dipper started, unsure of what he really wanted to say but feeling he should get something off his chest. Melanie nodded and looked at him in approval. "In all my nightmares from the night before and tonight; you were there. And every time you were the one messing everything up. You were the evil in my nightmares." He looked at Melanie's blank face and added "I'm just saying a fact because I think it's weird. I'm not trying to hurt you in any way." Melanie waited a while before answering.

"Dipper, I do the same thing. In my nightmares you're the one creating chaos, and most of the time you're hurting Mabel. I think that's because I admire the way you care for your sister and I really hope you both outlive this attack because I would never want that taken away from either of you." Tears swelled in her eyes and she added "Your nightmares show you the thing you want least to happen. And if yours shows me messing up it shows that you trust me but you're afraid it might be a mistake, or something along those lines." Dipper nodded, understanding that those nightmares would mess him up more than before.

Mabel mumbled in her sleep and Dipper rushed to wake her up. They had taken too much time to talk and they had almost risked Mabel going into another nightmare cycle. Dipper brought the breakfast platter to her bed while Melanie got down on her bed to sleep.

"I think this should be our last cycle" she said "or else we're going to sleep all day."

She took a little longer to fall asleep considering what Dipper had told her about his nightmares. Obviously this affected her nightmares and made them even worse.

By the time they had all gotten as much sleep as they could, it was around noon and Stan was probably worried sick. They dressed up and got downstairs. He was cooking again, his back turned to them. When he turned around they saw he hadn't got much sleep either. He put down the lunch he had cooked and they started to eat in silence. Stan looked like he had aged of 5 years in one night, his worry so visible on his face it made the children uneasy. Dipper finally decided to give Melanie's advice a try.

"Hey Grunkle Stan, thanks for the breakfast. " Stan nodded, waiting for the rest to come. "And there's something we need to tell you. The apocalypse is coming tomorrow."

Dipper waited for Stan to react but when he didn't, he proceeded with telling him everything that had happened behind his back for the last week and one day. How Melanie's story was actually true, how there had been a murderer in the house, how Bill had visited them and sent them nightmares. Stan didn't show any expression of believing or understanding what Dipper was saying. When he was done, Stan rubbed his eyelids together.

"Thanks for sharing that kid. I knew something was up but I didn't want to force you into telling me. You probably thought it was for my own good. You remind me of my brother, he always thought not keeping me in the loop was the best option."

"Your brother? Wait, you believe everything I said?" asked Dipper, not believing Stan could actually believe in what he has always dismissed as nothing more than a childish invention

"Of course I believe you; I've been here for 30 years before you came along. How could I be blind enough to not see the supernatural surround us? And with my brother who did his research on it, it was impossible to ignore."

"Wait, your brother did research on the supernatural here? Does he know the author? The author of the journals?" Dipper stood up from his seat, excited to finally know the answer to his first unsolved mystery.

"Yeah my brother is the author. Listen, kids, we need to be quick." He said before Dipper could ask anything. "You said Bill was coming from the mindscape to attack us with some kind of army?"

"That's what we think." Replied Melanie

"Well then it's my turn to tell you something I've been holding back for a while now. " Stan stood up and went into the shop. The kids followed him, wondering why he needed to go there to tell them something.

Stan turned the sign to closed on the shop's door and stood in front of the vending machine.

"Dipper, Mabel, I know you may hate me for holding secrets for thirty-seven years, but it was for your own good." Stan turned around and pushed buttons in a certain sequence on the vending machine. The machine swung open to reveal a secret passage with a staircase that seemed to go deep beneath the shack.

He entered and the teens followed. Dipper looked intrigued at how he could have lived in the shack for seven summers and still not know all its secrets. Mabel looked more amazed than anything as the place seemed like some old secret war passageway. Melanie knew by instinct what was down there. She could feel its powers resonate through her and she hoped it wasn't real; because if it was, they were all doomed one way or the other. They reached an elevator at the bottom of the stairs and Stan entered a password to open it. They got in and traveled down three levels.

The doors opened on what looked like a military bunker base, with huge computers giving different signals. They walked to the end of the hallway that was formed by the machines until they reached a desk. There, Stan took out two books from a closet. Dipper's mouth opened in both awe and horror. In his hands, Stan was holding Journal 1 and Journal 2.

"You had them all along? Why didn't you tell me? Because you thought I was a kid and couldn't be trusted with such a secret? Why Stan?" Dipper asked, tears in his eyes. He felt betrayed, sad, but mostly angry for never being suspicious of Grunkle Stan.

"Easy kid, I just didn't think you were ready to know what they unlock; but now you have to be. I'm sorry it took all this time." He put down the books and turned to face a door with blue light seeping from under it. "Here is my last secret. I think it might be the most dangerous my brother's built and now it might be used by Bill Cipher." Stan opened the door and entered the room. A triangle with a blue hole of light in the middle stood there.

Mabel and Dipper looked at it in awe and Melanie flinched back. Her worst fears had come true. Dipper looked at Stan as if waiting for him to explain what this all was when Melanie stepped in between the two of them to prevent a fight.

"It's a portal, Dipper. Bill can and will use it to bring his nightmares and monsters from the mindscape and other places. "

Dipper searched Stan's face for a denial of what Melanie had just said, scared to trust her or believe what he had just heard. Stan nodded and looked at his feet in shame, and Dipper felt his body turn to fire. If Bill succeeded, it would have been thanks to their "trusted" Grunkle Stan.


	13. Chapter 13

Dipper threw himself at Grunkle Stan. Well at Melanie, more or less, because she was still standing in between them. She had been prepared for the shock, but boy was Dipper strong now. He wrestled with her until she lost and he finally got to hit Grunkle Stan full in the jaw. The older man stepped back from the shock and prepared to fight back. Before Dipper could manage another hit, Mabel had grabbed his arm and was holding him back. Melanie did the same and tried to reason with him:

"Come on, Dipper, Stan didn't mean to hurt you. " Melanie tried as much as she could, but Dipper wouldn't listen. So she tried to get Stan to explain himself. "Come one Mister Pines, you owe him that much. Dipper is as strong as you wanted him to be. He's braver, nicer and more powerful than you ever thought he could manage with his noodle arms. You owe him the truth, especially because of what is going to happen. We can't fight now. We can't allow ourselves to be divided." Dipper managed to free himself from the girls and landed a kick on Stan when the older man opened his mouth:

"Alright kid, listen to me. Building this portal wasn't my idea. It was Stanford's, my twin brother's. He was the smart one, just like you. After I ruined some science fair project for him, he despised me and came here to study anomalies, like his six fingered hand. I didn't talk to him for more than ten years until he finally asked me to come here to Gravity Falls. I thought we would be best buds again, but no luck. He wanted me to get rid of his journals so no one could know the power they held. I was furious, and we fought. I pushed him inside the portal and he's been trapped there for thirty-seven years. I tried to get him out of there, but I couldn't. I'm not smart enough." A tear rolled down his cheek. "When Dipper gave me the third journal seven years ago, I activated the portal but couldn't get it to work in order to get my brother back. "Stan held back a sob. "He would have been able to help you now. I'm useless, I'm just a sad broken being who always looked to his brother for answers. He's not here anymore and even you guys don't trust me. I should just continue robbing tourists." He stepped back into the lab part of the secret hideout.

Dipper looked at him in amazement. Did all Stan say was true? Was he really trying to get his brother back because he felt sorry for what he did? Dipper ran to his great uncle and said

"I feel I shouldn't trust you, but I'm still going to say this. You're the only one who knows how this portal operates. And we need to shut it down. Right now."

"That's not possible, kid. The portal opens on both sides: here and the mindscape. If we close it here, it will still be open on the other side."

"Yeah but if we destroy it here as much as possible and shut it down, won't it at least slow down whatever if trying to come from the other side?" asked Melanie, trying to find a solution at all costs because this was starting to look bad for them.

"Maybe" answered Stan, "but it would have to be enormous damage, one that would take time to repair even with magic."

"How about damage by magic?" asked Dipper, his hands already ablaze from the anger he had felt before. Anger he still felt but could not say so in fear of being hurt by the girls.

Stan took a step back as he saw the fire, then nodded, and they walked back in.

"First we need to shut it down. There is a manual overload with three keys over there. You turn them and I push this button, okay kids?" Stan seemed depressed at the mere thought of actually doing this. Then Melanie realized: he was sad because this opened portal was the only way he could get his brother back. Well, not exactly, she could try to find him; but she preferred to not tell Stan now and let him suffer the consequences of his actions. Melanie liked the truth when it didn't hurt anybody, and telling the twins about the portal wouldn't have hurt them, so she disliked Stan for keeping it a secret although he had a valid reason to do so.

The kids found the keys and turned them all at the same time. They turned around to check if Stan was pressing the button that had appeared on a post in the middle of the room.

"Come on Grunkle Stan, "encouraged Mabel "it's for the greater good."

Stan hesitated again then pushed the button. As he did, the room went almost pitch black as the portal turned off. Dipper and Melanie created fire to be able to see. Stan was standing there in the middle of room still, and Mabel grabbed his hand and got him out of the room. Melanie and Dipper faced the portal and when Mabel had closed the door, they began to destroy the portal as much as they could. As pieces started to fly everywhere, Melanie created a bubble of protection around them as Dipper unleashed his anger unto the piece of metal. Melanie promised to herself to never make Dipper angry because she did not want to face him when he was angry. His spells were so strong it was a miracle they did not destroy him when he cast them. He got tired after a while and Melanie continued to bring apart the pieces that remained. The portal didn't look like much now, and Melanie wondered how long it would take Bill to glue it back together. Probably ten minutes was her answer, because she knew Bill to be stronger than any other being. This would still give them some time to prepare to attack.

They all left the secret hideout and went back to re-open the shop for the afternoon. Stan had lost his enthusiasm for making money, and Dipper pretended he didn't hear a word the man said, saying it was all a lie. Mabel and Melanie tried to comfort them and ended up taking their jobs, Mabel in the shop and Melanie on tours. Stan still stayed around to supervise everything, but Dipper went upstairs to the attic.

Never before had he felt so deeply betrayed by someone who he had thought he loved. Trust no one, the journal said. He could only allow himself to be very close to a few people and Grunkle Stan had been part of that group. Until he lied, that is. If the lie had been something small it may have been alright because Grunkle Stan was not an exemplary man who always told the truth; but a big lie like this that may have caused them their lives, it was not acceptable to think your family would just accept it like nothing had happened. Thankfully, he had told Stan the truth early and therefore knew about the portal before the apocalypse, but still, it was no excuse.

Dipper didn't realize he had been crying until drops hit his knees that he kept against his chest and he tried to dry them. He couldn't, he had never before felt so bad about everything going on in his life. He had to lead them through the apocalypse and was expected to protect them all, but he couldn't do so if the others started to hide things from him. Not that he was an example himself, hiding his crush on Melanie, hiding the worst of his nightmares to Mabel. He was exactly like his uncle in this sense, but he didn't think it could matter so much. He knew he should tell the girls what he'd meant to say for two days, when a knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts.

He casually said a "come in", drying his tears with his shirt. Melanie came in, hesitant, and stood on the doorway after closing the door behind her. She was carrying a hot cup of tea in her hand. Dipper didn't really like tea and never drank it except when it was his favorite: peppermint. And he could smell the peppermint coming out of the cup.

"I brought you your favorite tea, the only one you like." Melanie said, a shy smile on her face. "It's the only kind I like too."

Now it was Dipper's turn to smile, and it was refreshing to feel your mood lighten up after crying. Melanie moved forward and brought the tea to Dipper who took it and took a burning sip from it.

"Thanks" he said "just how I like it." He took another sip after blowing at the surface of the liquid. He then offered it to Melanie who took a sip herself. He was right, it was good tea. They continued like this for a few minutes, Dipper taking a sip then letting Melanie take one. None of them said a word, while Dipper looked out of the triangular window and Melanie looked distractingly at the wooden floor. They stole glances at each other but neither mentioned it.

When the tea was finished, Melanie took it from Dipper's hands and said :

"We're closing the shop in about an hour. You can come downstairs if you like or you can stay here. I'll be outside with Mabel once we close and we can practice or talk if you want." She didn't add anything. She didn't have to; Dipper understood perfectly she wanted him to open up so he could feel better. He knew it would but he wasn't ready yet.

"Good luck with the tourists" he shot back at Melanie as she closed the door to exit the room.

Oddly, Dipper felt Melanie had eased him in no way Mabel could ever have. Was it just because he liked her a lot or maybe because she was actually better at this than his sister? He doubted that because Mabel didn't like to see him unhappy, but she also usually solved this problem by being overly present in Dipper's life, which he was not always thankful for. Melanie, on the other hand, knew that he liked to be quiet and decide when he needed to confide in someone. She never rushed him when it came to those matters and always took his choices seriously. Dipper realized that she might be the last love of his life if he died tomorrow and a new wave of tears shook him. He wanted to tell her his feelings, even if she didn't care; he needed her to know that he loved her.


	14. No More Secrets

When five o'clock came, he went outside to talk with Mabel and Melanie. They were laughing about a tourist that apparently looked very funny to watch. Dipper suddenly wished he had been with them, but the object of his sadness came into view. Stan still looked decomposed after the fight they had had, but Dipper couldn't care less right now. Melanie came up to him and whispered in his ear:

"I was thinking I could tell Stan that I can actually try to open a portal myself to get his brother back. I just wanted to ask you first."

"What do you need? My consent? Go ahead, I don't care about this loser anymore." Dipper replied. He could see he had hurt Melanie by answering harshly, but he just wanted to make his point of view clear.

Melanie came to Stan and whispered something to him that Dipper couldn't hear. He saw Stan stand up from the bench and come to him. He looked sad enough for Dipper to not say the witty comeback he was preparing.

"Look kid, I know you hate me right now. And I totally understand it. It's just that, the apocalypse is coming in a few days, and we have to stay united. Melanie told me I could maybe get my brother back with her help so that makes me feel a lot better. So now I would just like to make amends for keeping a secret like this for seven years. I know I shouldn't have."

"Yeah you shouldn't have!" yelled Dipper. Melanie and Mabel stepped back in fear. A wave of shock hit him and he realized he was the only obstacle standing in the way of them becoming a team. He took a deep breath, and added. "The problem isn't there though. You did what you did and you can't change it. I don't approve and I still resent you for lying to us, but I can pretend I'm cool with it long enough for us to maybe have a chance at winning against Bill." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and looked at his feet. "So, agree to be civil with each other?" He said as he outstretched his hand.

"Agreed." Replied Stan, relieved, grabbing Dipper's hand and shaking it.

Relief filled the whole place and the girls continued to talk for a bit while Stan explained exactly what he knew about this place, which was not much because his brother was the genius, not him. Dipper then turned to Melanie and they went into the forest to practice magic before diner. They made little noise and suddenly Melanie stopped Dipper with her outstretched arm. She made a motion to keep quiet with her hands and pointed forward. A rabbit was there, going along on his little rabbit business. Melanie whispered " I think it's time to put that killing spell to the test." Dipper nodded and concentrated. He murmured the incantation and slowly, Melanie saw the rabbit's soul escape its body. When it was completely taken from it, the animal fell dead on the floor and Dipper burned it. The soul wandered around, not knowing where to go. Dipper looked at Melanie for answers.

"I think they just wander around until they either go to the afterlife or remain here as spirits." Melanie said. "Well done thought, just a bit slow; but that's okay for a first time." She added.

They continued to walk and every time they found a small animal, Dipper would kill it. He started to feel bad for the animals after the fifth one, and Melanie agreed they should come back for diner as it was getting late. They came back, Mabel and Stan in the kitchen cooking together. Mabel looked particularly happy as they came. She winked at Dipper when he entered and he swore to himself he would ask her what her deal was, before she did anything stupid. They sat down for diner and ate. Mabel and Melanie resumed their girl talk while Dipper was forced to talk to Stan or not at all. Stan was still looking for ways to make it up to him so he listened to apologies for most of the diner. Once it was over he grabbed Mabel's hand and brought her to another room and closed the door.

"Why are you so happy?" He asked.

"I'm just normally happy." Mabel replied

"Don't play dumb with me, I know that you're this happy for a reason and you winked at me when I came in. So tell me, what's gotten you so excited?" Mabel looked around the room to make sure they were alone and spoke:

"You like her, don't you. " She said "Melanie." She added .

"Well she's my friend, obviously I like her." Dipper said, sure he was blushing like a tomato.

"No but you like like her." Mabel insisted on the second 'like'. "Or do you love her? " She must have seen some answer on Dipper's face because she added " Oooo you love her. You do ."

"I don't know yet. I " he hesitated, then realized Mabel already knew the gist of it "like her, I think I would like to love her. So yeah, I have a crush on her. You happy?" He crossed his arms in self-defense as Mabel swung at him to get a hug.

"I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Aww, baby brother, you're so cute when you're in love." she practically sung.

"Shush, I'm not in love. It's just a crush. " Dipper felt better after telling Mabel, though.

"Are you going to tell her?" Mabel asked, a bit too enthusiastic to Dipper's liking.

"No, are you crazy? The apocalypse is coming, I don't want her to bear this burden with me. And what if she doesn't like me back? That ought to be bad for the unity of the group."

"Dipper, if she doesn't like you it'll be okay, just like it was for Wendy."

"Well I wasn't okay after Wendy, if you recall. I was sort of sad around her for a while."

"Yeah but you got over it bro-bro. The point is, you have to tell her."

"I won't, Mabel. And don't you dare do it." Mabel looked at Dipper in defiance then stepped out of the room. Why did she have to be so darn right every time when it came to these matters. He knew he should tell Melanie, but he didn't have the heart to do so.

He came of the room after a few seconds and came face to face to Melanie.

"Hey what's up dude? I was just wondering if you'd like to look at the stars with me on the rooftop." Melanie asked, casually.

"Yeah okay, sounds cool." Replied Dipper.

He followed her up the ladder until they were sitting at Wendy's private spot that had become theirs. The night was fresh but not cold, and the stars were brighter than he remembered them being in California during the year. Melanie sat down on the ledge and allowed Dipper to sit next to her. For a while, they just looked at the trees in front of them, wondering who was going to talk first. Dipper's mind was already going twenty thousand miles per minute and he wondered why Melanie had brought him here. Maybe it was to practice other spells. Maybe it was to just talk about plans for their upcoming fight. Maybe it was about Stan's brother. Maybe it was to tell him she had to go back. Maybe she was dying. Maybe she was already dead. Calm down, thought Dipper, everything is alright.

Melanie then looked at him and finally said something, something he had not been expecting.

"Do you remember that tattoo of a bouquet on my chest I told you about?" Dipper nodded. "Well, I just thought that, since we're maybe going to die tomorrow, yeah let's stop bullshitting ourselves, then I just thought maybe I could share this secret with you." She quieted down.

"You mean, show me the tattoo? Isn't it on your breasts or something?"

"What, are you afraid of a girl's breasts? "She laughed "Dipper, are you that prude?" she asked, suddenly serious.

"No I'm not, I'm just wondering if I'm in some way violating your privacy or something." Dipper looked at his shoes, suddenly very interested in them.

"No don't worry. I wanted to show you for a long time since you were so eager but you're the only one I've ever considered showing it to. So feel proud."

"I am proud. Not only of that but of what you made of me with all your teachings. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"You will be." Melanie stood up and Dipper followed. She stepped back from the ledge and took her t-shirt off. Under it was a white bra where you could already see the stems of the flowers peeking from underneath, and the top of the bouquet from the top. Melanie looked at Dipper who was staring at her body.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to." He said, looking back at her face. Melanie shook her head and undid her bra, it came down to her feet and Dipper could now see the whole bouquet. It was formed of violets, daisies and a few lilies just like she had said. The combination wasn't that bad, it looked like it had been squeezed between her two breasts. He came closer to her. "Can I touch it? " He asked "Not on your boobs though." He quickly added, his face blushing like never before.

Melanie nodded and he began to trace the lines of the stems on her belly. The tattoo felt real, though it had been formed by magic. He was amazed at the detail of it and the sense of reality it gave. When he felt he had taken enough of Melanie's time, he backed away. "Thanks for letting me see this." He said. "It's beautiful, really. It looks like you're a part of nature yourself. Not in a bad way though."

Melanie put back her bra and t-shirt as she nodded thanks. She sat back down on the ledge but Dipper remained behind. She turned around with a questioning look and he came to sit next to her. They looked into the darkness again.

"Melanie" Dipper started but never finished, because as soon as he had called her name and she had turned around, her lips were on his and he could not feel anything in his body except that kiss.


	15. Chapter 15

Dipper's heartbeat seemed to have vanished, replaced by a flood of emotions. Too soon, Melanie's lips left his and he opened his eyes again. He resisted the urge to kiss her again and asked:

"How did you know I wouldn't reject you, or be disgusted by that?"

"I didn't. I just wanted you to know I loved you, before anything happened tomorrow." Melanie said in a whisper. "That's the reason I came to Gravity Falls, you know. When I learned you might die, I didn't hesitate to come here. I know it may sound stupid to say that, but I had a crush on a cartoon character, with whom I fell in love with after meeting him in real life. Or at least I think it's love, I'm not very good with feelings." Melanie pulled her hair back behind her ears, nervous, scared of the reaction Dipper might have to the secret she had finally told him.

Dipper leaned in and grabbed her lips with his. The kiss was deeper than the first one, his hands around Melanie's face as hers placed themselves on his shoulders. He played with her lips, his throat singing in harmony with his feelings. He rubbed his fingers against the corner of Melanie's jaw, feeling its sharp edges and its roughness. She, on the other hand, was grabbing him like a rock, the kiss so strong she felt it might make them fall off the edge of the rooftop. He broke it after a while, getting much needed air to his lungs.

"I love you too, if that's what those feelings inside me are." He said, still breathless. "I've been wanting to tell you for a day now but I couldn't bring myself to share my burden if something happened to one of us tomorrow." At these words, Melanie's heart sank from the weight of the truth she was holding back from Dipper. She couldn't tell him, not now that they had found each other. To ignore that feeling, she kissed him again; sliding her body closer to him. At the touch, Dipper felt his heartbeat quicken. Although it wasn't only because of the kiss as he was reminded that they were on the ledge of the rooftop, their legs dangling in midair, and they could fall with any sudden movement. The adrenaline rushed their kiss and quickly they had to break apart again to catch their breath.

Melanie slid her body until it was totally against Dipper's, and put on her head on his shoulder. He intertwined their fingers, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand in small circles. She started humming a soft song, her humming growing into singing softly. She sang about love and how life was beautiful. Her voice grew as Dipper joined in, not really sure if he should be singing. His voice wasn't great or anything but it was soft and still beautiful. Together they forgot about the world and the upcoming apocalypse.

As the song ended, they stayed quiet on the rooftop. They could hear the sounds of the forest, and Mabel and Grunkle Stan playing cards inside the house. They closed their eyelids, sleepy; but they didn't get to sleep because then a nasty voice broke the illusion of happiness.

"Well well, if it isn't my two favorite love birds. How are you guys doing lately? Getting cozy? Don't mind me, I watched everything. I'm proud you finally told him, Bookworm. It was becoming a rather long wait. I was almost ready to say it myself."

"Shut up Bill! Why do you always have to ruin everything?" Dipper yelled, shoving Melanie gently aside and getting up. "Can't you just be nice for once? Do you always have to make us feel inferior and bad?"

"You don't get it, do you?" asked Bill. Receiving no answer from Dipper, he continued "I'm doing this because I love it. It's fun to take over your whole world before your eyes. The best might be Pine Tree's overreaction to everything."

"Stop it! Bill, you're hurting him! And I know you love it and you have no soul but you know the laws of the universe as much as me." Melanie yelled, standing up herself.

"Oh and you think they apply to me, witch?" Bill replied with sarcasm.

"They apply to every living thing in the universe. And last time I checked dream demons are alive. Immortals but alive. So these rules apply to you as well. And you know that for everything bad that you do"

"Another will happen to you; yeah I know how it goes thank you very much." Bill interrupted. "I know it applies to me but I've got immortality to let those things happen, right now I'm focusing on creating a nice apocalypse for you guys. I don't want to think about a time in the future when you will be dead how something terrible is going to happen to me and I will eventually die. Oh wait, I can't die! Silly me!" Bill erupted in laughter and the two teens willed themselves out of the mindscape. They had almost succeeded when Bill caught them.

"Leaving already? I don't think so. I've got other things prepared for you tonight. As you may know or have guessed, the third and final wave of nightmares is coming, worse than all the ones before. You have created new bonds and therefore have new weaknesses that I will take a pleasure in destroying in your dreams. Enjoy!" He left in a blue flame and the world returned to normal.

The two lovers exchanged looks and knew they both had understood what that meant: Bill would take advantage of their new feelings to create chaos. They didn't know if they were prepared. They went into the house, and joined Mabel and Stan, who were still playing cards, Mabel clearly winning, because she had probably made up the rules anyway.

"Hey kids, wanna join the game?" asked Grunkle Stan "We're playing Mabel's version of Poker. She wins every round even if you think you won."

"I'll pass." Replied Dipper, sinking in his chair.

"I can play." Answered Melanie, and Mabel distributed some cards to her.

They played for around thirty minutes. Mabel was still winning all the time, but Melanie tried to change some rules so she could win too. In the end Stan was very annoyed at being the worst at this made up game and they stopped playing. With a heavy heart they said their goodnights to Grunkle Stan who would be the only one to get a good night's sleep. The teens went up in their room and sat down on their beds. It had been decided that Dipper would get the first spot because he hadn't in the last two nights, then it would be Mabel and then Melanie. Dipper wasn't sleepy at all, but he still whispered goodnight to the girls and slid in his bed. He started to think about what had happened in the day, but in a matter of seconds he was gone off to sleep.

The girls whispered quietly about how Dipper looked so cute when he slept. Mabel had always made fun of how Dipper sneezed like a kitten, but Melanie found it was cute and adorable that he let her do so. He did seem much more relaxed in his sleep, that is until the nightmare started to kick in. As soon as they saw him kicking around, the girls had gotten up and woken him up. As his eyes opened, they could see they were filled with tears.

"What happened?" asked Mabel, worried.

"I don't want to talk about it." Replied Dipper, sitting up on his bed.

"Maybe you should at least tell us the pattern if there is one, so we know what to expect." Suggested Melanie.

"There is no pattern, none that I could think of anyway. It came faster than the others. We're really not getting much sleep tonight." Then, gently he added. "Go to sleep Mabel, we'll wake you up don't worry."

Mabel hesitated a second, leaving her twin brother in this mess seemed a difficult move, but she listened to him and got to bed. In the same way as Dipper she was soon off to sleep.

Dipper dried his tears with his sleeves and grabbed Melanie's hand to calm his rapid heartbeat. She pulled him into a hug, that quickly transformed into a kiss. Dipper moved his hands so they reached Melanie's face, as hers went against his chest. They broke apart to gasp for air, and Dipper shot a look at Mabel to check if she was okay. Melanie made herself more comfortable on the bed and pecked a kiss on Dipper's cheek. He replied with a full on kiss, opening her mouth to mix their tongues. The kiss deepened and Dipper wished it simply would never end. The rush of emotions he felt was so wonderful he even forgot all about Mabel. As they again broke apart for air, Melanie turned to Mabel to see she was already tossing and turning in her sleep. She sprang up from the bed to wake her up.

Like Dipper, Mabel had tears in her eyes as she woke up. She flung herself in Melanie's arms and stayed there as Melanie squeezed her back. Dipper joined them to pat his sister on the back and tell her everything was okay. Quickly Mabel let go of Melanie and sat back on her bed. She dried her tears and nodded to Melanie to indicate her she could go to sleep now. As always with the third spot, Melanie was scared because of how the others had woken up, but she tried her best to keep her cool and try to go to sleep.

Soon she was immersed by fatigue and fell into a pit of blackness as she fell asleep. The first few minutes were calm, nothing happening, only blackness then images shot at her. Mabel, cut in half at the waist and lying dead on the grass. Dipper, naked, a sword through his body and blood pouring out of his mouth. Herself, her hand severed from her body. She tried to close her eyes then reminded herself she was in a dream and tried to control it as she had so often done. An image of Stan decapitated sprang in front of her eyes and she tried to make it disappear, but as she did, more parts of Stan were cut off as he twisted in agony.

She jolted awake as Dipper shook her and much like Mabel, she went directly to hug him. Dipper had been right, there was no pattern in this nightmare and it did come faster. It just sent horrible images of what could happen tomorrow. Melanie let go of Dipper and before he could get to his bed, said:

"We need to use these nightmares as a weapon. They show us the worse that could happen tomorrow but we need to use it to build our strength. Think of it as a reason to fight for. We don't want this to happen so we fight harder, right?" She didn't seem too sure of herself but she didn't want them all depressed by thinking any of this was going to happen. As far as she knew, at least Dipper or her would die or disappear in some way, but the others should be fine.

The twins nodded in response, and Dipper headed off to bed. Melanie dried her tears and joined Mabel on her bed.


	16. Cold Hearted

The third and final day began with Grunkle Stan coming up to their room mid-morning announcing he had closed the Mystery Shack for the day so they could focus on getting some sleep, practicing and setting up defenses. He left them to get more sleep, but once Mabel had woken Melanie up, there was no way they could sleep anymore. The dread of the upcoming battle gave them a rush of adrenaline and they dressed up and went downstairs for breakfast.

This time it was Melanie who cooked breakfast. French toast and bacon was on the menu. She put down the food on the table and sat between Dipper and Stan, the two still not getting along so well. They ate in silence, each of them wondering whether it'd be the last breakfast they'll have or not, Melanie being more than 50 percent sure about it. She had researched it and she knew that if she died in this dimension, she would be definitely dead and never coming back to her original dimension. She had sent during the night a message in a dream to her sister telling her that she was okay but probably never coming back.

"So kid" interrupted Stan " how about you teach me some spells as well? I might need to defend myself."

"Um, alright. I can teach you a few basics like Mabel." Melanie answered, staring back at her plate. Dipper grabbed her hand and rubbed it with his thumb.

"Are you okay?" he whispered soothingly.

"Yeah, I'm good, don't worry." Replied Melanie, worried more than ever that she might lose Dipper forever. She had thought that maybe the warning meant she would leave Gravity Falls before Dipper turned 20 and that would be the reason she would never see him reach 20, but she knew deep down inside that that wasn't it.

They finished breakfast and headed outside. The yard was empty of tourists which made it easier for them to practice spells. Melanie went over the weapon conjuring spell with Mabel, which she succeeded to do on the first try; and managed to teach it quickly to Stan, who was learning well. Dipper was farther away from them, meditating to allow his body to capture as much energy as he might need. He started to practice some elemental magic, summoning fire, wind, plants rising from the ground and controlling water around him.

Melanie taught an easy shield spell to Mabel and Stan; and Dipper was happy that Mabel would at least know how to defend herself. He would have gladly protected her all the while but he knew she would never allow him. She didn't want to be a burden, and she wouldn't be if she continued to practice spells like that. He saw that Melanie wasn't teaching them the knowledge of magic but rather spell craft which was more useful in combat, though it could be dangerous because they had no background knowledge of where magic comes from and how you can improve it by just doing the right thing; the way she had taught him. She was still more knowledgeable than he was, but every spell he did was more powerful than any she could achieve. She had been right, he was very powerful.

Melanie left Mabel and Stan to practice alone and joined Dipper. They went a little farther into the forest and sat on a trunk. They kissed, slowly at first. When they broke apart, Dipper whispered the only thing he had been thinking in the last twelve hours : "I wish every kiss would last forever so we wouldn't have to fight Bill." Melanie nodded and went back to kissing him, with more passion, her knee touching Dipper inner thigh, making the boy moan and letting their tongues touch. They were so blissfully happy they didn't hear Mabel walk in on them until she said:

"I knew it!" Melanie and Dipper immediately broke apart, Dipper getting up to pretend to be mad at his sister; but stopped in his footsteps because of how cute Mabel looked as she smiled giddily at them. "I knew you had a thing for each other, even though I would have never guessed in the beginning. I'm sorry for interrupting though, I just wanted to make sure I was right."

She left the forest and soon Dipper and Melanie were left alone. The mood had been slightly damaged and Dipper went on to practice some magic while Melanie helped him. She stood right behind him, their bodies so close but still not touching, and guided his every movement as he created a big protective bubble around the Shack. Melanie had done one already the day following her arrival, but Dipper's would be stronger and more recent. When he was done with the spell, his skin tingling both because of his proximity to Melanie and from the magic, Dipper turned around to face Melanie and kissed her lips gently again. As they broke the kiss Melanie wrapped her arms around Dipper's neck and let their bodies fully touch. Then she placed a small kiss on his cheek, his jaw, his neck, his shoulder until Dipper moaned so loudly he was sure Mabel had heard it. Melanie smiled and picked up his open mouth with her lips and kissed him like never before. Her hands rubbed the back of his neck as she intertwined their tongues. Dipper grabbed her waist and pulled her closer.

Dipper wasn't sure if what they were doing was a good idea or not, but he knew that this was so good he never wanted it to stop. Melanie's lips on his skin felt like a touch from heaven itself and he couldn't help but hope she wouldn't do better than that or else the pressure growing in his jeans would worsen and now was not the time for that. He had never been kissed like that by a girl, though he had kissed a girl in a similar way. After Melanie ended their kiss he placed one on her brow, lowering down in the same manner she did but never kissing the same spot. He came to her neck and stayed there a little longer, Melanie holding him tighter as she moaned herself, not as loud as Dipper though.

Finally he let go of her neck and went back to cup her open mouth. Breathlessly he ended the kiss and she collapsed in his arms. He lovingly wrapped his arms around her and they stayed in this position as they caught their breath. Melanie couldn't remember a time she had been this happy and smiled. She had never thought coming here and meeting Dipper in person could make her more in love than she already was with a fictional character. She closed her eyes and listened to Dipper's heartbeat in her ear; as hers slowed down to match his until they sang in perfect harmony.

Slowly they released each other and Dipper's gaze fell on the hickey he had created at the base of Melanie's neck. She tried to look at it herself but couldn't, and he apologized for making it so visible. She didn't seem to care and kissed him lightly. They sat back down on the trunk and Melanie guided Dipper's energy inside himself again, the way she had done on his first lesson. He got there quicker this time, and found his way to his head. Melanie wasn't there so he used some magic to locate her. When he found out where she had gone, his heart skipped two beats before quickening. He hurried there and found her grinning at what looked like a corridor in the form of an endless spiral.

"What are you doing in my heart? Shouldn't we focus on my brains and guts?" asked Dipper, worried.

"No, I think there's a new level of magic I need to show you today, in case something happens. It might hurt a bit, not physically, but it is necessary considering what is coming." Replied Melanie, waiting for Dipper to reach her to enter the corridor where his heart was.

The hall showed portraits of Dipper's family. First Mabel because it was the first her knew, then his parents, his siblings, his cousins, his grandparents. As they went deeper inside the spiral, the more the portraits showed recent people. Melanie's face came up and she blushed. Dipper's first memory of her was that of a weird girl who was possibly telling the worst lie ever. Soon enough they reached the end of the hallway and came into a circular room. The room was also covered in portraits of people, but this time, Dipper recognized them as the people he cared the most about. Mabel was there, his family was there as was Grunkle Stan, Soos, Wendy, and some of Dipper's close friends in California. Then there was Melanie.

She had half expected to be in there considering Dipper had a thing for her, but she would have preferred not to be, because it meant that if she died, Dipper would be more hurt because he cared about her a lot. She swallowed the forming lump in her throat and started to explain what they were doing here.

"As you can see, this is the room closest to your heart, filled with the people you care about the most." Dipper nodded, afraid of what she might say after. "If any harm happens to those people you might be devastated, and three of those people are taking part in the battle tonight. You can't let that defeat you, especially if any of those people die."

" Melanie, you can't be serious? If anything happens to them, I need to help those people. Wouldn't you do the same?" Dipper asked.

"Maybe, but you're our leader. Whatever happens you must stand strong and never stop fighting, even if one of us falls. Especially if one of us falls. This is why I'm going to show you how to not feel anything emotionally for a short period of time, so you can do that."

"But, won't it hurt me? How is this even possible, I don't want to continue fighting if everyone is down. I'm not emotionless like you." Dipper quickly regretted saying that as Melanie looked hurt.

"You think I want to be emotionless? You think I chose to? It's not my fault I'm in love with you and I decided to help your dimension instead of caring about my family who doesn't care about me! I'm doing the best I can!" Melanie paused, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I just…." She sobbed. "You have to do it, you're our leader. I wish there was another way to get you totally focused on the battle and not on us; but there isn't. You will have to do it. If you don't, Gravity Falls will never survive Bill's apocalypse and we will have done all this for nothing. I'll take care of anyone who gets hurt, if that reassures you a bit. If you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for Mabel. She wouldn't want you protecting her when you could be winning the battle."

"You've got a point. I'm sorry I was rude, it's just that you can be kind of insensitive sometimes."

"That's because I discard my emotions, so in a way I expect others to do so as well. I know I'm wrong to treat you like that." Melanie dried her tears with the back of her hand. "So, you're ready?" Dipper nodded and Melanie proceeded to show him what he should do. "First you need to look at one of those portraits. You can't do this in a hurry, this is why I recommend you do it before battle. You look at the portrait of someone, and you imagine a black veil covering it."

Dipper looked around for a portrait to practice on and finally went for his father because there was no way anything would happen to him today. He looked at it and focused on conjuring a black veil to go over it. When it finally did, he felt his physical heart in his body of energy get a light squeeze.

"What now?" he asked, not seeing any other results.

"This should allow you to think or see this person without feeling anything about them. You won't be mean but you won't be nice either. You can take away the veil when you want. If you want to see if it works, try to think about you dad." Dipper did as she advised and could think nothing else of his dad other than him being his father. He did not feel how he liked when he ruffled his hair every time he won at chess, or how much he liked to see his father come home and hug them. His heart was cold, it was creepy. He took off the black veil and every feeling came back to him, and he felt the weight of his love for his father bury him for a second before coming back to normal.

"Wow, that was creepy. Not feeling anything about someone you know you love." Dipper said, still shaking from the emotional experience.

"I know, but it's necessary." Melanie replied.

" How did you ever do it?" asked Dipper, scared of the answer. He knew Melanie had said she didn't care about her family much, but she must still care a bit.

"I had to. If I hadn't done it." Melanie paused, unsure if she should actually say why, but looking at Dipper's worried look convinced her to say the truth. "When I left my dimension to come to yours, I wouldn't have come here. Even here I kept it for a few days before I could live with the emotional weight of maybe never seeing my family again. That's why I was so cold in the beginning maybe, that's how you'll be. Cold, never thinking about the other person's well-being but rather the mission at hand. Like I said, sometimes it is necessary."


	17. Before Battle

Dipper and Melanie exited Dipper's body and returned to sitting on the trunk in the forest. Dipper was chilled by the discovery Melanie had just told him. It could be creepy to think that a human could do that to himself. She still looked so beautiful, her brown hair shimmering in the low light of the forest, her legs so close to Dipper's he could feel the electricity between them. He decided to make this feeling grow by touching his leg lightly to Melanie's and she responded by placing her hand on his thigh and leaning over to peck him on the lips.

The wonderful feeling was short lived, however, as Melanie got up and stretched.

"We have to get back, it's almost lunchtime and we have to get some strategies done before the battle." Melanie declared. "And if we could get some sleep that would be very much welcomed." Dipper nodded, agreeing.

They headed out of the forest, Dipper grabbing Melanie's hand as they reach the edge of it.

"Don't you want to keep our 'relationship' a secret from Stan? He might see it as a bad thing." Melanie asked Dipper, worried this would unbalance Dipper and Stan's relationship once more.

"I don't care what Grunkle Stan thinks, I love you and I'm proud of it." Dipper answered.

Melanie smiled from ear to ear and planted a full force kiss sloppily on Dipper's lips, saying upon releasing him "I love you too." She knew it was probably way too early for either of them to say such words, but when the apocalypse is near, you feel the need to say everything you feel , fearing it might a wasted emotion in a few hours.

They crossed the line of trees and came into the clearing behind the shack. Mabel and Stan were still practicing and when they appeared, Stan dropped his jaw and retrieved 5 dollars from his pocket, which he gave to Mabel. She took them with a bright smile and turned to face the two lovers, hand in hand.

"Stan can summon weapons and wind now. He's getting better with the fire magic but has no idea how to make the shield. I can do it though." Informed Mabel, creating a light blue shield around her in a matter of seconds. Stan mocked her and said he would be able to do it if she wasn't so darn annoying about Dipper and Melanie's love story.

Melanie blushed, let go of Dipper's hand and went to help Stan. Mabel ran to the kitchen yelling she would make them the best lunch ever. The connotation that it could be their last was too strong to be masked by the happiness in her voice. Melanie, however did not let it bring her down and went on to teach Stan to make a shield properly. Dipper joined in to help. It turned out Stan's mistake was that he didn't focus enough. Once Dipper started throwing things at him to force him into making the shield, he succeeded.

Mabel called them for lunch twenty minutes later and they came running to the kitchen, the hot weather and practice making them hungry. She had cooked some ribs in the oven because they didn't own a barbecue grill, with some mac and cheese and what looked like half-finished cupcakes. Melanie looked impressed at Mabel's cooking skills, but Dipper reassured her that Mabel had been cooking since she was twelve and this was easy for her. Mabel finished the icing on the cupcakes before putting them in the fridge while they ate. The food was delicious and Mabel got many compliments.

After a mostly silent lunch, they all headed for their rooms to get some sleep. They knew they had to sleep but they feared the nightmares that would come with it. Stan got to his own room to sleep as well, tired after spending all night awake wondering how he could have been so stupid to think leaving the portal open would in any way help get his brother back, now that it was a doorway for Bill to come into this dimension. The teens sat on their beds, ready to repeat the same cycle as always, when Melanie spoke:

"I thought about it, and I think I ought to give it a try. I can make us sleep for a few hours with no nightmares, magically. We have to set an alarm though and it could drain me; but I think it's worth a try."

"No way, we are not letting you drain yourself so we get some sleep." Said Dipper, decisive.

"Don't worry, I regenerate very quickly and I really think sleep is necessary for us." Melanie put the alarm at 5pm so they could get 4 hours of sleep. " Get in bed and let me do the rest." She ordered.

The twins got in their bed, and Melanie sat on hers, legs crossed. She started to hum a tune, then chanting Latin on the same tune. The twins felt their eyes close, and they went off to sleep. Melanie slid back in her bed and repeated the almost same procedure but on herself. She emptied her mind and travelled to the mindscape while her body got some rest. It wouldn't be as well as the others, but hopefully she would get some sleep , no nightmares and maybe even a peek at the army forming in the mindscape.

The alarm woke them up four hours later and Melanie was shaken awake by Dipper. The worry she saw on his face as she opened her eyes predicted nothing good. He hugged her tight as she took a sitting position.

"What is all this fuss about?" Melanie asked, seeing Stan was in the room as well.

"You wouldn't wake up, and your body wouldn't budge one inch. We thought you were dead or something." Quickly said Dipper before pressing a kiss to her lips. Melanie savored the taste of it before justifying her seeming death.

"I was in the Mindscape, working. My energy leaves my body while I do that, so it looks like I'm dead or at least unconscious. I'm sorry I gave you all a scare. I hope you slept alright."

"Yeah we slept the best in the last three days, but we thought you were supposed to sleep the same as us." Said Mabel, concerned.

"I can't, this spell only works on other people. I'm glad it worked on you guys. I was busy in the Mindscape anyway." Melanie added

"What did you do? Did you see Bill?" asked Dipper eagerly

"No I didn't see him, but I think I found the other side of the portal. " The impressed faces on the others showed that her work hadn't been for nothing. "I destroyed it as much as I could but my body was already very weak so I passed out and that's why my energy took a long time to come back to my body and it looked like I was dead. "Melanie explained. She stepped up from her bed, her head feeling instantly dizzy, like she had just lost half of her blood. Dipper caught her before she fell. "I'm fine." She added, freeing herself from Dipper and getting fully up.

"No you aren't, Melanie. You're drained, you have no more energy, and I can see it." Said Dipper, worried.

"I can recharge now while you guys do the same, actually, so we're all our best." They all nodded, considering this was the best option to wait for Bill to come. "We need to go outside." Said Melanie.

Dipper caught Melanie's arm around his shoulders and helped her walk downstairs, although she insisted she was perfectly fine. She did feel like she was about to go unconscious any second, but she couldn't show the others she was weak. They arrived in the clearing behind the shack, Dipper almost carrying Melanie, and they sat legs crossed on the grass. They closed their eyes, to Melanie's orders, and she began to chant. They joined in, except Dipper who was using his knowledge of magic to gorge himself with it through the earth. After Mabel and Stan seemed to get the hang of the chant and she could feel the magic coming into them, Melanie did the same as Dipper and felt a rush of energy and wakefulness go through her as the magic entered her reservoir rapidly. She suddenly felt much better and ready to take on anyone and anything. After a few minutes she felt she couldn't take anymore magic and opened her eyes. Mabel and Stan had stopped chanting, probably realizing they had gotten as much magic as they could.

Dipper's eyes were still closed and he looked very focused. Melanie looked at him and guessed what he was doing. It must hurt, she thought, but it was necessary. Dipper, his energy inside himself, was indeed in his heart, but as he looked at the portraits of all the people he loved most, he realized he couldn't let them go, even for a few hours. He starred at them, thinking that Melanie would probably be mad at him because he didn't block his feelings, but he couldn't. So he decided to pretend he did, so Melanie would be as proud of him as she was when he had accepted to lead them.

He opened his eyes and saw that an hour had already passed. The weather was turning bad and black clouds were crowding the skies. They hurried inside before the storm broke out. Mabel made hot cocoa for everyone and they sat at the kitchen table in silence, waiting for the real storm to come.

"Do you know when exactly Bill will come?" asked Stan, who knew the less about this.

"I'd say nighttime because that's when he visited us for the first time. We need a plan of attack." Said Dipper, assuming his role as leader under Melanie's loving smile. He couldn't betray his cover and kiss her, but god he wanted to. "I think we should expect Bill to come through the portal and wait for him there. Maybe one of us could stay up here and see if Bill comes from another place. "

"We could communicate through telepathy." Interjected Melanie. "I didn't think about it before, but it would really help." The others nodded, Dipper trying hard not to smile at the look of utter enthusiasm that had appeared on Melanie's face as she came up with her idea. "All you have to do is think of the person you're sending the message to and think the words." Dipper heard a sweet 'I love you' resonate in his head and knew it was Melanie. He was caught off guard by it because he had thought she would be smart enough to not send him that if he had no feelings; or maybe she had seen through his cover. He said 'it works' back to her, preferring to keep his cover for now. Mabel frowned as she focused to send a message to Stan and by the look of shock on Stan, she had rather well succeeded.

"Not so loud kid!" yelled Stan out loud, realizing the goal here was to speak in his mind right after. He apparently sent the same message to Mabel because she giggled a few seconds after.

"To send a message to everyone, think of everyone at the same time; but maybe it's better if we just speak to one person instead, to save our energy." Melanie instructed. For a moment, she seemed exactly the way she had seemed when she taught Dipper at first, very direct and strict, not really putting emotions in what she was saying.

Mabel picked their cups up as they finished and Dipper looked at his watch. 6:30. Not much time had passed, yet it seemed like an eternity. Melanie brought a few flowers she had taken outside a few hours before and told them to slip them under their shirt so they touched their skin and gave them some power. The best plan would be to lead Bill outside the shack so they could have a better connection with the earth, but that would mean a better connection for Bill as well, and that was risky. Stan took out a pack of cards and tried to get them to join to pass the time, but only Melanie seemed in the mood for it. Everyone was mostly looking down at the wooden floor and wondering on the meaning of life.

When nightfall was nearby enough, Dipper stood up and decided that Stan would stay here in the shop while the teens would go downstairs to meet Bill. While he hated the idea of letting three teenagers face a dream demon and his army by themselves, Stan knew he was the worst at magic so it was only logic. He went to fetch some guns he kept hidden in the shack and let the kids go downstairs to the portal.

The tunnel was dark and the portal didn't seem on. The teens made their way to the huge triangle structure and stood there, waiting.

"Whatever happens to us" said Melanie "I want you guys to know that it was great meeting and training with you guys. We can do this."

The twins nodded and returned their focus ahead on the portal, waiting for it to lighten up. Melanie felt her insides turn as if being twisted by a hand inside her stomach and willed herself to stay strong. The flower on her chest reminded her of her past where she had gotten it, her present where she had shown it to Dipper, and her future if she came to die with it. It was a branch of holly she had brought from her dimension as a symbol of hope.

They stayed there until the portal turned a bright blue and the force sent them crashing against the walls.


	18. The Beginning of the End

Melanie got up as quickly as she could and faced what came out of the portal. Instead of an army of beasts and monsters, a bunch of humans stood in front of her. The second it took for her to lose her focus was the one second it took for the army of humans to send a second wave of shock towards the teens. Melanie was forced back against the wall a second time and took longer to get up. She saw the people trying to get out of the lab and she closed the door. They all turned to face her and she could feel the magic around them even before their hands created fires of different colors and they aimed at her.

Dipper stepped in front of her and created a shield just in time before the wave of magic hit them. He receded from the shock but held his ground. Melanie gathered a big ball of fire herself and as Dipper's shield wavered, she sent it towards the line of humanoid demons. Mabel and Dipper sent fireballs after fireballs as well, the demons not seeming much affected from the damage, their eyes turning red and their shapes morphing to create more power. Melanie shot an electric bolt into the portal, damaging it slightly, just enough to shut it down. About twenty demons had gotten in the room now and Bill was nowhere to be seen.

The demons continued to attack the twins, sending waves of magic everywhere, the effects differentiating from one demon to another. Mabel got hit on her arm by a female demon with some white magic and her arm slowly took a sickly purple color as what seemed like poison shot through it. Melanie reached for her and got rid of the poison just in time before it could invade her whole arm. Dipper received a hit of brown magic in his cheek that made his scream so loud, even the demons stopped fighting for a second. He must have healed it quickly because he soon stopped screaming and resumed fighting. When Melanie shot him a questioning glance he answered: "fear magic".

Melanie had known Bill would probably still try to harm them both physically and mentally and it seemed like he was succeeding, though she still couldn't see him anywhere. She called for Stan mentally, saying that the barrier they had wouldn't hold long enough. His answer came back quickly and choppy: "I got Bill". Melanie created a shield to take a pause in the fighting and communicated the information to Dipper and Mabel. Mabel decided to get up there to help him and even before Dipper or Melanie could say anything, she was gone. Melanie' shield began to falter under the attacks and they resumed fighting. Melanie fell down trying to dodge throws more than she got hit, which was a relief because she really didn't want to face her fears awake. Dipper had closed the door leading out of the lab but the portal was starting to take on a light blue shade again and soon more demons would come in. They weren't even able to take down any demons, just hold them off. Dipper levitated some demons and threw them into the portal as it turned a brighter blue. They disappeared and didn't come back for about a minute.

Melanie understood Dipper's idea even before he phrased it. She started to throw demons into the portal as well, making sure she threw them with enough force so they would take more time to get back here. Together, they almost wiped the whole army in front of them before the first they had thrown out came back. The army regrew quickly, but Melanie and Dipper continued. Slowly the number decreased again until Melanie shot down the portal by throwing a rock against it. Only three demons were left and that seemed like a much more accessible fight. Melanie could feel her magic reserve starting to weaken and she knew that they didn't have much time before they needed to head outside to recharge.

While Dipper kept damaging the portal, Melanie took the three demons by herself. Once the small space of the lab was cleared of most of the demons, fighting became much clearer and easier for her. Unfortunately, it was also an advantage for the demons. She tried to remember what she had learned in all her years of studying magic. Demons can create humanoid bodies but if those bodies become too damaged they have to leave it; but they usually heal very quickly. An idea started to form in her head and she began to test on the demon on her left while she kept out the other two with a shield. She pictured the insides of the demon's body and a few seconds later his heart came splashing out of his chest and the form dropped to the ground. She repeated the trick twice on the other two demons. Dipper looked at her in awe and shock.

"How the hell did you do that?" he asked.

"I'll tell you later. We have to help Stan and Mabel upstairs." Melanie started to rush for the elevator, Dipper on her heels. They got in and headed upstairs.

"You have some blood on your cheek." Said Dipper, brushing her cheek softly with his hand. They reached the top and could hear the fighting noises coming from the shop.

Stan had a gun in hand and was shooting at the form of a blond teenager. Mabel was right behind him, creating a shield between them and the other humanoids. The form turned to face them, a smile on his face, his features still relatively human compared to the demons they had left downstairs.

"Oh hi there kids. I hope you liked the appetizer. It took you long to choke down so I created some distraction to hurry things up. Sheesh Shooting Star, don't look at me that way. You fell for the trick but Pine Tree and Bookworm didn't." He seemed to pause and listen to something the others couldn't hear. "Oh, and here's my cue." He declared joyfully before disappearing and leaving Stan and the kids alone in the shop.

They only had a few seconds of respite however as the ground began to shake beneath their feet. They all turned to the vending machine, expecting an enormous army to emerge from it but nothing came. A second thud shook the earth and they realized it was coming from outside the shack. They realized a second too late as the rooftop of the shack was ripped apart by what seemed like a mountain-high bear. They rushed outside and saw that it was indeed a bear but that its size was enormous. As soon as they touched the grass, Melanie felt magic rush through her and she took off her shoes. The others did the same while Melanie rose into the air and threw a gulf of wind at the bear. The creature turned towards her and screamed, almost making Melanie fall to the ground. She recovered from the blow and summoned enough wind to take a nearby tree out of the earth, levitating it to hit the bear.

Dipper watched in fear as Melanie used her remaining energy to throw the tree as hard as she could before falling to the ground. Dipper flew up to get her before she hit the ground and placed her softly there, returning his attention quickly to the bear that had become more infuriated by the tree than hurt. Mabel had summoned her grappling hook and was already throwing it at the bear, while Stan was shooting at it with all his force. Melanie opened her eyes to the chaos in the clearing, just enough to see Dipper fly up to the sky with a rope in his hand. She sat up and regained as much magic as she could before standing. Dipper grabbed one end of the rope and let it fall, then quickly he flew around the bear, enrobing him with the rope until he couldn't move much more. Tired, Dipper flew back down and ran to Melanie.

"We need to do the same trick you did to the demons downstairs." He said, breathless. Melanie resisted the urge to take his sweaty t-shirt off him and replied:

"I don't know if it'll work, it will be harder to do on a bear."

"But we need to try or else we're doomed to fight it for a long time and I don't know how long the portal is going to hold." Dipper pressed.

Melanie nodded and threw her arms forward, initiating Dipper to do the same.

"Focus on his heart, picture in your head, and on the count of three picture it coming out of him, like you grabbed it." Melanie explained, ignoring the disgusted look on Dipper's face.

They closed their eyes and together they focused their energies inside of the bear. Melanie found the heart quicker than Dipper and showed him the way. "One, two, three!" Melanie yelled, straining from the effort as the bear's heart came gushing out of his torso, pouring dark red blood all over the shack and the clearing. Melanie collapsed to the ground due to the effort and the world around her became a jumble of noises.

She felt Dipper tug on her sleeve. She knew it was him from the gentle touch and the way his hand felt on her skin, her hand scared and rugged. She opened her eyes to see he was not looking at her but at the shack. She sat up and looked at where he was pointing. All hope of ever winning this attack was drained out of her as she saw an even bigger army than before of demons, this time, not all in human shape, most having taken monstrous and deadly forms. She stood up and prepared to fight. Suddenly Bill Cipher appeared at the head of the army, a huge smile on his face predicting nothing good.


	19. Battle

The demons had the element of surprise blown away, but they lunched at them with all their might, or so it seemed. Dipper created a shield but did not last long under the strength of the attacks. Meanwhile, Melanie got up and created a shield of her own, reaching deep inside the earth for power, wishing she had taken her shoes off. She ordered Dipper to bring Mabel and Stan to safety, but they would do no such thing. Instead Dipper closed his eyes and Melanie saw the rush of raw magic coming through his body. If she hadn't seen it before, it would have scared her. The amount he could take it was incredible but more incredible was the rapidity of it all. It was like breathing, a natural thing for him.

As her shield began to falter, Melanie prepared for battle. When it dropped to the ground, she did not look behind to what the others were doing and focused on taking the demons in front of her. First she threw some fire balls, electricity, blew them against the trees with wind; but nothing would get rid of them. They never stopped and just seemed to get stronger. She finally realized that they were sucking the energy she sent their way and saving it to attack her. Melanie created a small shield around her, just strong enough to last the few seconds it took to take off her shoes. She placed her two feet firmly into the ground and released her shield.

She waited for a demon to attack her. Soon, a demon jumped at her, his teeth looking incredibly sharp in his open mouth. Melanie focused on finding the energy inside the demon before grabbing it out of its body. The demon stopped in midair, like choking on something and a blue veil of smoke came out of him. Melanie absorbed the energy and waited for the next attack. The demon she had dealt with now laid on the grass, alive but weak. The demons facing her looked at each other as if in bewilderment, an expression Melanie would have never thought a demon could have, and then faced her once again simultaneously. Then they all ran towards her.

Melanie had no other choice than to materialize a sword and swing it at her opponents. She was not very good at sword fighting, and the demons didn't seem to care much about being injured. She thought the number of demons in front of her had increased, and that she couldn't take them all by herself. She took a quick look around to see the others were dealing with situations as bad as her. She faced the herd in front of her once again, ready to attack; when the sound of a car reached her ears. What would a car be doing here? The demons seemed to have picked up the noise too since they were all looking at the direction of the sound. A car appeared in the Mystery Shack driveway. It stopped and a man came out of it. Before Melanie could realize who it was, Mabel yelled:

"Soos, come on! Give us some help here! These demons think they can destroy us all!"

"I'm on it Hambone." Replied Soos, turning his cap backwards and grabbing something from the back of his car. Melanie didn't have time to see what it was for the demons were already taking offense again.

Soos grabbed the golf club and the flamethrower from the backseat of his car. Demons were already approaching. Suddenly he was very glad that he went around always prepared of a zombie apocalypse; but really any apocalypse would do he told himself as he turned around to meet his opponents. With the gulf club in his right hand and the flamethrower in the other, Soos attacked them head on. A swing of his club followed by some fire pushed the demons a little away from him. He continued to advance and try to hit as many enemies as he could. A moment of inattention caused a demon to claw him in the back as he wasn't looking. Mabel burned off the demon yelling revenge.

Soos couldn't see the end of the army of demons. It seemed to go right into the house, as if the demons were coming out of it. As strange as that may be, it didn't bother him that much and he continued to fight off the monsters around him. He was winning when he got hit in the head by a boulder and stumbled. He thought he was dead for good but a light blue bubble appeared around him, protecting him somehow. He recovered his senses and grabbed his weapons, looking around to see Dipper looking at him with his arms outstretched. Was he doing this? Was it magic? Soos knew he didn't have time for questions and he would have to wait, so as the shield collapsed he swung his arms around and started chopping down more demons.

Mabel was glad Soos had come to help them even though she didn't know why he came here when no one told him about the apocalypse. Not that it mattered; it was nice to have an extra hand against this army of demons. She was doing her best with the little she knew. Creating a grappling hook wasn't really handy in this situation so she had summoned a riffle. She had learned to shoot at camp and was glad she had been the best of her class. Demons around her dropped like flies, but they quickly recovered which made her always battle the same opponents and never get any defeated.

She tried something else, summoning grenades. She threw some into the crowd, but they didn't seem to move away from it, even as it exploded. She changed weapons again and created a razor sharp blade. She tried to get some magic into it by focusing her energy. She felt a bit of herself leave her body and jump into the blade, right before she swung it into some demon. It fell to the ground, a blue veil of smoke coming out of his body and captured by the sword. Whatever she had done to that sword, it had worked and was finally killing or weakening some demons.

Mabel saw Melanie create a similar weapon after looking at her and both of them headed out against the mass of enemies and chopped them down. A hole started to appear in the crowd of demons and Mabel was glad they might actually have a chance to win this battle.

Stan has chosen to stand on a fallen tree and was aiming at the demons with his gun. Most of those he hit fell to the ground before standing back up, but after a few more hits they grew too weak to move forward, and chose to heal themselves instead. Magic surrounded Stan as the demons tried to attack him that way. He had created a shield around him that only let the bullets get through; but he was getting tired. He couldn't hold them back forever. He summoned a second gun but the shield failed him and he found himself staring at a mob of angry demons.

"No refunds!" he yelled, trying to buy himself some time to think of another plan. He looked around for any idea to help, only finding trees and the others struggling to fight their own demons. One look at Soos and he summoned a flamethrower as well. Flames really seemed to make demons back off, but they also had flames of their own so his epiphany didn't last very long. His flamethrower died in flames, he smirked at the irony of the situation and sought out another answer to his problem. He panicked as the demons got closer and threw his arms in front of him in self-defense. A rush of wind surged forward and the line of opponents was thrown backward.

He tried to repeat his attack and ended up throwing more wind at the demons, guiding them back into the house where he tried to get rid of them by throwing them against the walls and hitting them with various objects in the shop. He was scared of how much money he was going to have to spend on those damages but right now he just wanted to stay alive. His sole worry was how the others were doing outside.

After he had filled himself with power, Dipper attacked every demon in front of him in any way he possibly could. Some he threw against the trees, others he blew up in flames, he erupted walls out of the earth to protect him from their attacks. Controlling the elements was the easiest magic and it did not tire him much, but neither did it kill any demon. He tried to figure out better ways to fight them, when Bill appeared just above his right shoulder.

"Doing okay kid? Ready to face your death?"

"The only death I'm going to face today is yours Cipher!" replied Dipper harshly, throwing more rocks at the demons approaching him.

"Calm down Pine Tree, I'm immortal, remember? I can't die, so you're just setting yourself an impossible goal." Bill said, positioning his triangle form in front of Dipper, blocking his view for a few seconds, enabling the herd of demons to come closer to him.

Dipper waved his hand at Bill and shoved him off, revealing the army of demons way too close to him. He threw some wind to push them back but stumbled back in the force of the movement. He quickly regained his balance and pushed back his cap that had fallen on his face. He looked around him to see Bill was still hanging close to his face, staring at him, smiling, examining his every movement. This moment of inattention gave a demon the opportunity to throw himself at Dipper, biting deep in his arm. It had the form of a very big dog, and Dipper had a hard time throwing it off. When he did, however, his arm was covered in blood and he felt the pain blind him. He struggled to stay standing and blinked the dots in his eyes. Demons were getting closer on all four sides of him, Bill above him not doing anything and just watching the scene. Dipper threw a gust of wind to push them back to buy him some time. What he saw as his vision cleared did not heighten his hopes however.

Stan was out of the house and surrounded by demons, one of them soon knocked him off and began to bit Stan in various places. Soos had his back against a tree, pushing away with his bare hands the demons that tried to bite him as well, not succeeding and letting one cut deep into his arm. Mabel was still fighting though her situation was not much better. She too was surrounded on all four sides and she had lost her sword and had no weapon other than her magic and useless weapons she could conjure that would be useless in her situation. A leopard shaped demon jumped on her back and brought her down. She didn't seem to be able to get back up and Dipper could see blood running in the grass where she laid. Melanie was unconscious, a large pool of blood surrounding her body. She seemed dead.

Dipper fought back tears that had come to his eyes. In an outburst of anger he let out all of his energy in pure magic, pushing the demons around him back ten feet. He fell to the ground from the sudden weakness that came after and started crying. He turned to face Bill.

"You caused all this! I hate you! I hate you! We're all going to die because of you! Because of me, because I couldn't let go of my feelings!" Dipper managed to reach deep down inside him and throw flames at Bill. The demon didn't seem to care however.

"That's the plan, kid. You die and I take over this world. You can't defeat me now." Bill laughed, earning another shot of fire from Dipper who was getting weaker by the moment. "Actually, there is a way you can still win this." Bill added. Dipper looked up at him, listening intensely.

"I am not making a deal with you!" He yelled, standing up.

"Fine kid, but I can feel Melanie slipping away. Mabel is coming soon after her. You'll be responsible for all their deaths." Bill laughed again. Dipper tried to attack him but he couldn't, he was too weak. The demons were closing in on him.

"Dang it, what's your deal?" Dipper groaned, unhappy to settle it this way, but knowing there was no other option.

"I save everyone and end this battle and you owe me a small favor." Bill said, extending his arm.

"You save everyone, end this battle and make sure everything goes back to the way it was, as if you hadn't invaded our dimension. I want you out of our lives for good."

"Fine kid, whatever. Do we have a deal?" Bill asked, impatient.

Melanie opened her eyes. The demons were all standing still, looking at one point a little to her right. She turned her head to find Dipper talking with Bill. She listened closely to what they said.

"What favor would I owe you? "asked Dipper, wanting to know his conditions before he made the deal. He didn't want to be possessed again.

"Um, well let's see." Bill paused to think. "It's been a while since I've been a human, so when we make the deal, you owe me one person to switch with me: I become a human, and they become a dream demon. Who wouldn't want that?"

"Who are you going to take to switch?" Dipper asked, cautious.

"I think you already know the answer." Bill said mysteriously

"So you're saying if I shake hands with you right now, you'll end this battle, pretend it never happened, be a normal human and never bother us again; all I have to do is give up my life as a human so we can switch?"

"You got it kid!" exclaimed Bill. "Now do we have a deal? Come on, shake my hand so we can switch and this can all be forgotten." Bill extended his arm, his hand going up in blue flames.

Dipper looked at the hand. He could try to gather some energy and fight Bill off, but he'll never be able to save everyone from the herd of demons. He looked at Mabel and knew she would be strong if he left for good. Maybe he might come back in her dreams as a dream demon. His gaze dropped on Melanie and he knew he was making the right choice. He had just known her for the past few days but he felt like he'd known her his entire life. She was brave too, she would survive. He thought of Stan, Soos, Wendy, his family, how they would all be sad about his switch with a demon, but at least he wouldn't be dead. He turned to face Bill, who was tapping his foot in the air impatiently.

Melanie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Dipper was ready to become a dream demon to stop this war. He had no idea what that meant, he wasn't thinking clearly. She had promised herself she would do whatever it took to let Dipper be the one to reach twenty years old, and she wasn't keeping her promise by letting him be a demon. She gathered strength from the earth and pulled herself up.

Dipper couldn't hear anything, his mind was so focused on the sacrifice he was making he didn't notice Melanie until she stepped in front of him and grabbed Bill's outstretched hand. "I love you" she said, before the world around Dipper turned dark.


	20. Chapter 20

Melanie didn't know what to expect after making the deal with Bill, but she clearly hadn't expected to find herself in the Mindscape. Bill was there, floating in circles with the top part of his triangle bent; as if thinking very hard about the situation. He finally stopped in front of her, hands on his hips, and said:

"I'm going over every possible reason you could have to do this, but I can't find it! Why did you make the deal in his place, kid?" His eyes turned red and angry. Melanie still didn't lose her composure though and responded.

"Because I love him, that's why. You don't understand positive emotions so you couldn't possibly understand love."

"Don't talk to me that way, Book Worm. I know every possible human emotion and I know when every human is feeling those emotions. I knew you loved Pine Tree and that he loved you back, don't underestimate my knowledge."

"It's not because you know it that you understand it. It's because I love Dipper that I took the deal for him, I couldn't bear to see him become just like you. Mabel wouldn't have survived the shock. "

"You humans and your weird irrational decisions, I will never understand that; not that I'd want to anyway. So, you want to make the deal?"

"I thought I made the deal when I shook your hand? I'm confused; don't tell me you want Dipper specifically, because I'm not going to let that happen!"

"No, no, don't worry kid; I made the deal with Dipper so the details applied to him particularly. The deal I'm making with you is different."

"How different? You're still going to change the whole apocalypse thing back to normal, aren't you?"

"Yeah don't worry, I might even make sure everything is back in order, no one is traumatized or hurt; but they won't forget it happened. Every last bit of memory will stay so they can remember forever how useless they were against me. Also, since you're going to become a dream demon, it would be a shame to let them forget you. " Bill laughed, sending goosebumps all over Melanie's body.

"What about you? What human are you going to be? Are you going to use my body?"

"Now why would I do such a thing? I won't have powers as a human but I will finally be able to die and not live on forever; but I wouldn't want to do that stuck in your body! No, I'm going to create one of my own; just like you're going to create a demon body of your own. It might take more time for you because you don't know what you want; but I do." Bill laughed again. "Oh and I forgot to mention, they won't know I'm the demon that started the apocalypse. They will know me as their friend, Bill."

Melanie didn't know what to say, he had them all trapped right where he wanted them. Maybe this had been his plan all along.

"So kid, do we have a deal? I don't have all eternity." Bill would have smiled if he had a mouth.

"Can I change some details, like about them forgetting you're their worst enemy?" Melanie asked, knowing it was all in vain.

"Nope, I really want them to suffer this time; humans are so incapable of enduring pain. I'm making you a dream demon so it won't be as hard for you. So, are you going to shake my hand?"

Melanie hesitated for one more second, feeling Bill's patience growing thin; and finally shook his hand, feeling she had made the worst mistake of her life.

She felt her soul taken out of her body and she was aware she was floating in midair, still looking like herself from her human body which had disappeared from where she was. Bill had disappeared too, and she could not see anything but the Mindscape. Great, she thought, no one to tell me what to do in the Mindscape, guess I'll just figure things out on my own. She thought about Dipper and suddenly she saw him in a screen-like portion of the Mindscape. He was still unconscious, lying on the ground of the clearing, but all the demons were gone. She looked around to find Mabel, Stan and Soos in similar positions. Suddenly she noticed movement. The fallen trees were returning to their standing positions, all the blood and other fluids in the yard were cleaned away and the shack was repaired. Bill was keeping up his part of the bargain at least, she thought.

The bodies were picked up and Melanie saw a yellow mist go over their heads, as if Bill was conditioning their memories like he said he would. This part probably hurt Melanie the most. She stopped watching and decided to make the best of being an actual dream demon. She tried to morph into a different shape and that became very easy, very quickly. She opted for an easy shaped since details were hard to maintain in the landscape. She floated around, trying to see what she could do.

Dipper woke up the next day, feeling refreshed. He stepped out of bed to see his sister had already gone to breakfast and her bed was empty. Another mattress was lying there on the ground but he could not remember who it belonged to. Dipper walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to find his sister Mabel, his Grunkle Stan and some blond kid his age, seating at the kitchen table eating Mabel's pancakes. He grunted a small "morning" and headed for the coffee machine. This all seemed odd to him for some reason. The three others at the table were silent and he could feel they were waiting for him to seat down to talk.

He eventually did and the look his sister gave him said it all. His nightmare from last night, though vague and small, was probably what he had feared: reality.

"So Dipper, you remember what happened yesterday, right? When an army of demons invaded our house and sort of destroyed everything? I think it was true." Mabel said.

Everything came back to Dipper very quickly and he only said "Melanie" before his eyes got very watery and he was on the brink of crying. She had been there, and she wasn't here anymore. She had made the deal, he remembered now. She had made the deal with this demon and she would be a dream demon herself now. It was his entire fault, he had hesitated too long. How could he forgive himself?

"What exactly happened?" Asked Mabel, concerned. "Bill here tells me he only saw Melanie shake the demon's hand and then she vanished."

Dipper suddenly remembered who the blond kid was: his friend from Gravity Falls.

"When did you get here?" asked Dipper

"Well, since you didn't want to hang out and I thought it was suspicious, I just came by myself. Wasn't expecting the apocalypse though. Man, your girlfriend is pretty though, she saved you all even though she looked like she would never get up. She's very brave." Bill said, excitement in his tone. But excitement was the last thing Dipper felt like.

"She sacrificed her life so we could all live, I know it's brave, but she didn't have to!" Tears came rushing down his cheeks and Dipper ran back to his room.

It couldn't be. This was all a dream. Melanie would never leave him like that, alone, scared of the world. She had given him a possibility to help the world with his powers and instead of listening to her advice and becoming the leader she wanted him to become, he had done what he thought would be safe and that had only made things worse. He remembered the night she had finally agreed to let him see her tattoo, how he had felt so honored to be the first to look at it with her agreeing to it. She had been so sweet and nervous about it all. Their first kiss that night had been magical, which it probably was; Melanie had felt so soft and caring in their embrace he would never forget how he had felt that day. And now it was all over because of some demon!

Strangely he couldn't remember the demon's name, but he remembered a part of the bargain that had scared him most at the time he thought it would apply to him. This demon would become human. Instantly he suspected Bill was the demon, but then he remembered that the demon would create a body of his own, and Bill had been his friend for about two years now. The demon must be hiding somewhere. Dipper would take his revenge later.

He heard footsteps come up to the attic and he slumped even more against the wall of the window seat. He looked at the tainted window, a circle now instead of a triangle, though he did not know why he thought about that particularly. Mabel came into the room, and sat across Dipper on the window seat.

"You know Dipper, she loved you. She really did, I could tell by the way she looked at you. There was nothing in life for her that was better at this moment than save you from your own destruction. " Mabel said sweetly.

"I know she only wanted to help, but I can't help but feel empty inside, like I'm missing something, I'm missing her. She was probably one of the ones who understood what it was to be me because she was similar. She helped me in ways you wouldn't understand. She was my mentor, my friend, my girlfriend if you want to put it that way. I loved her; I still love her, in every single sense of the term." Dipper let out an enormous sob and closed his arms around his knees. Mabel came closer to him and tried to hug him awkwardly. He finally let go of his knees and grabbed Mabel around her shoulders, happy from the crushing sense it gave to him.

"Who knows" added Mabel," Maybe she'll be able to talk to you from the Mindscape." As Dipper gave her a questioning look, she explained "Bill described what he saw, and he came in as you were making the deal with that demon."

"So did he see anything after Melanie" Dipper paused "made the deal?"

"No he told me everything went blank and he doesn't remember a thing. She could be a dream demon; maybe she'll come visit you in your dreams. It still wouldn't be the same, but maybe she will explain what's happening to her and how she's feeling and you'll be able to keep in touch."


	21. Just a Memory

As Dipper slid into his bed this night, he knew he wouldn't sleep at all. He was so nervous whether Melanie would show up or not that he actually forgot the only way she would be able to contact him now: he should be in a near sleep state; but he wasn't, he wasn't the least bit sleepy. He tried to close his eyes and make his eyelids feel heavy, but he couldn't. He remembered all those sleepless nights they had in the three days before the apocalypse and he wished he would be as tired as he was then. Mabel was already snoring from her bed, lying still and holding her unicorn for dear life.

Dipper decided to just do what he usually did on those nights when he couldn't sleep: stare at the ceiling and think about things that happened. He thought about how he could have saved everyone, how Melanie wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself, if he hadn't been so tired. It was his fault that she was in the position she was in now. She didn't bargain for this, he did. He should be the one to pay, not Melanie. Melanie was hurt enough; she shouldn't be hurt even more. Dipper blinked and felt a tear roll down his cheek. Maybe thinking about Melanie wasn't such a good idea.

He remembered how that one day she had taught him to lead by showing him he no longer needed her; but he realized now that it was never true, he always needed her, especially in hard situations. He had needed her that day when he was ready to make a deal with that demon, he wasn't ready; but she was. She was stronger than him, but he still loved her. Loved her so much just thinking of her eyes and the way they seemed to sparkle when they looked at him brought tears to his eyes. He tried to fight back the flood of tears that followed, when a voice rang inside his "you're our leader. Whatever happens you must stand strong and never stop fighting, even if one of us falls. Especially if one of us falls. " The memory of this moment squeezed Dipper's heart and he couldn't hold the tears back anymore.

He closed his eyes, brought his knees to his chest and kept his fetus position until sleepiness overcame him. Suddenly he felt a shift around him and he opened his eyes only to see the world was now in black and white. Good, he was in the Mindscape, he thought. A blur appeared and slowly shaped itself into the form of Melanie. Dipper sat up in his bed and dried off his tears.

"You came!" he exclaimed

"Of course, I would never miss a chance to see you." Melanie responded, her voice echoing in the Mindscape. " How are things going? Is everything alright?" she asked, seemingly worried.

"We're okay, I think; everything went back to normal thanks to your sacrifice." Dipper stopped " Are you really going to be a demon forever?"

"I fear so. And I have additional bad news, I'm afraid." She floated down until she was sitting next to Dipper on his bed. She looked at him and he could see the tears in her eyes, but also something else. Something demonic. He tried to touch her but as his hand reached her skin it went through it. He took his hand back quickly, feeling a sense of cold where it had gone through Melanie's body. She closed her eyes and reached out for his face. Weirdly this time Dipper didn't go through her body. He grabbed her face as well just as her lips touched his. It was a chaste kiss, very small, but the first they had had for more than one day, and to Dipper it was even better than all the other ones before.

Melanie stepped back after a few seconds as she felt she was losing her opacity and becoming translucent again. Dipper unwillingly let her go and looked down to hide his tears. She magically rose his face up to meet hers and she whispered:

"I love you Dipper. "Dipper nodded, incapable of doing much more as he was overwhelmed with feelings of how much he was going to miss the softness of Melanie's skin as they kissed. She dried her own demon tears and held back a sob before opening her mouth again.

"Like I said, I have several bad news. First," she pointed to Bill sleeping quietly on the floor, " do you know who this is?"

Dipper looked at her questioningly before answering "It's Bill, my only friend in Gravity Falls."

"Think again." Said Melanie and a few images appeared on her body that had flattened out. Dipper could see a floating triangle, and he knew instantly it was the demon that caused all of it, he was about to say he hated this demon when memory Dipper said " What do you want Bill?" Dipper gasped and felt confused. Were the Bill in his room and the demon who caused all this the same person? He did say he would become human with the deal he made with Melanie. He didn't have time to give it much thought because another memory of his appeared. This time he remembered it clearly because it was only yesterday. Memory Dipper was on the battle field, running towards the floating triangle and yelling "The only death I'm going to face today is yours Cipher!" Bill Cipher, that was the name of the triangle demon, and the name of his supposed friend here in Gravity Falls.

"Bill is the demon who wanted to destroy us?" Dipper yelled, still not believing what was happening.

"Yes, as part of the deal he wanted to erase your memories of him and become your friend, probably so he could destroy you faster. " Melanie suddenly turned a bright red and started to become bigger and bigger, her anger apparent. "I'm going to destroy that meat sack because that's all he is now. He's like you, small and frail and so easy to kill."

Dipper felt so frightened it must have shown on his face for Melanie came back to her normal color and size. She floated off the bed and away from Dipper.

Dipper followed her and stopped next to her. This was the way they had been when they had first kissed, next to each other, sharing their sorrows. Melanie spoke first.

"That's the other bad news. Since I'm a demon, I am incapable of positive feelings such as compassion and love. I can only hate and want to destroy my enemies. For now I can control it but there will come a day when I won't be able to and all my love for you will disappear along with the rest of my humanity."

The words hit Dipper harder than a huge boulder thrown at high speed. The air was knocked out of his chest and he felt sure he would collapse on the spot. He did no such thing however and remained standing. He felt every good moment they had together throw nails into his heart as if to make sure they would be remembered no matter how much it hurt. The reality hit him a second time when he realized that meant he would probably stop seeing Melanie after a while because she would have no interest in seeing him. He would be forgotten, alone and without love. He dropped to his knees and started crying into his hands. He knew that wasn't very dignified of him, but he couldn't bring himself to look at Melanie after what she had told him.

After a while, the tears stopped flowing and he brushed them off and stood.

"Even though you will one day stop to love me, I will never stop to love you." He declared

"Don't say that, Dipper, it will only hurt yourself. You'll be better off finding another person to love. You deserve to have someone good in your life. I'm not good Dipper; I'm poison to you, to everything around me. You can't love me forever it will destroy you. You probably already understood that I won't be coming after a while to help you change paths. I want you to be happy."

"But you make me happy! Without you I don't know how it's going to be possible!" Dipper flung himself at Melanie, and walked through her cold body. The tears came down his face even harder now, even though he did his best to contain them.

"You were happy before I met you Dipper. You don't need me. Besides you know how to stop the pain you feel, you can stop yourself from loving me." Melanie's eyes were full of tears as well. She materialized and wrapped her arms around Dipper. The boy cried, his bead buried in the crook of Melanie's neck. He could feel his tears wetting Melanie's shirt but he couldn't bring himself to care. He could feel the warmth of Melanie's breath on his own neck, almost as if she were alive, which she was to a certain extent, just not in the way he would have liked.

After a few moments, they let go of each other and Dipper felt better already. He asked Melanie what she planned on doing now that she was a demon.

"Well I think I need to make deals with people and stuff and have like a super evil master plan or something; but I'm not into that yet, I'll probably just watch people for now. That's always fun. I will watch you, Dipper, don't worry. Just like Bill did, but in a way less creepy way. That dude didn't lie when he said he knew a lot, being a being of pure energy has its perks, one of which is travelling anywhere you want. You get to see so much." Melanie paused. "Maybe I could show you." Dipper nodded and waited for Melanie to respond. Instead she grabbed his hand and they spiraled out of his room. Suddenly they were underwater. Dipper had the reflex of kicking to reach the surface but Melanie held him down.

"You're in my Mindscape, nothing can happen to you here. You can even breathe underwater."

"So what are you going to show me?" wondered Dipper.

"My memories since I can't actually bring you anywhere because you're not a being of pure energy, much less a demon."

Melanie swam farther down into the lake, Dipper followed. The darkness that should have surrounded them was nonexistent and the lake seemed more friendly than aggressive. Soon they reached what looked like an underwater palace. Melanie entered and lead Dipper through a series of hallways, all marked with titles such as "childhood memories", "family memories", "Dipper memories". A big heart was visible on the door of that one, and Dipper almost stopped to look. Soon they reached the last hallway that lead to a small number of doors. "Demon adventures" was written above the arch and Dipper swallowed hard before following Melanie into it. Soon they reached a door which Melanie flung open.

The memory started with a blue orb floating around in a lake. "That's me, it takes much less energy to have a simpler shape." Explained Melanie. The ball reached the bottom of the lake before Dipper realized what this lake was: it was the Gravity Falls lake. Melanie was looking for something at the bottom or so it seemed. All of a sudden a ground shaking roar reached their ears. A giant beast followed it, almost smashing into Melanie in the process. It was the gobblewonker. "You know it's a fake right?" asked Dipper

"This one is not a fake, I swear." Replied Melanie.

The beast came around and stopped to face Melanie. Then it went away, but Melanie followed it. It crossed the whole lake before coming into a waterfall. There it stopped and went back. Memory Melanie rose to the surface and went through the waterfall. On the other side, a similar beast could be seen, but it was clearly dead, or broken since it was McGuket's invention.

"You saw the real gobblewonker? "asked Dipper, clearly amazed. "I never saw it."

"Well yeah, but I don't doubt that now you know it exist you will find it." Melanie offered as she closed the door to the memory. Dipper yawned and she added "We should get you back, you need real sleep."

A whirlwind like the first one transported them back to the shack. Dipper looked at Melanie and asked

"How often are you going to visit me?"

"As often as I can. Which means as least every night for now. Maybe I'll stop coming as often after a while, but you know why. Say hi to your sister for me."

Melanie disappeared and Dipper woke up. He was still in his room with Mabel and Bill sleeping soundly. Bill. He was going to kill that demon tomorrow. Or was it human now? Whatever it was, he was going to avenge Melanie. Sleep soon overcame him and this time he slept with no sight of Melanie.


	22. Promise me

So hey guys, it's actually the last chapter of the fanfic. It's been a wild ride for me, I don't know about you guys. I enjoyed all the reviews that were left for me, and I would even enjoy more now! Anything from just pure wonder to criticism is welcomed as it will help me in the next story I might try to write. Thank you everyone for reading my story, I hope to write more.

* * *

When Dipper woke up the next morning, Mabel and Bill had already left their beds. Dipper got out of his, determined to get rid of Bill, since he was indeed the demon that had caused all this. He descended the stairs and upon arriving in the kitchen could hear Mabel laugh at someone's jokes. He peeked in and saw Bill laughing with her. He joined them, asking.

"What are you two laughing about?"

"Oh, it's Bill, he's got this really good joke!" said Mabel, breathing heavily between every few words.

"You mean Bill Cipher?" asked Dipper, wanting to see if Mabel could come by herself to the same realization he had.

"Yeah, your friend Bill." Replied Mabel who had stopped laughing.

"Mabel, I never had a friend called Bill." Said Dipper seriously.

"Then how do you explain this friend then?" asked Mabel, seemingly not caring at all about what Dipper was saying.

"Yeah, how do you explain me then, Pine Tree?" asked Bill. A chill ran along Dipper's spine as he remembered Bill calling him that. Pine Tree. He hated it. Anger rose to color his cheeks, but he did not let it show.

"Oh, he just created a body yesterday." He said, as if it were obvious, which it was. Mabel's face frowned in confusion, looking alternately between Dipper and Bill.

"What do you mean he created a body? Is he not human?" she asked, curious this time.

"Oh, he's definitely not human. He's a demon." Said Dipper, looking closely at Bill to examine his reaction.

"A demon? What nonsense? Do you believe him, Shooting Star? I mean, who invents lies like this?" Bill added jokingly.

"You do, Bill. You're the one that caused all this. All this war and destruction. You killed Melanie." Dipper declared. Mabel was now looking at Bill, still confused, when suddenly something seemed to click in her mind and she grabbed a knife and started hitting Bill with it.

"You demon! You killed our friend! Dipper's first girlfriend! And then you come back to haunt us without us knowing! How dare you? "Tears were glittering in Mabel's eyes as she continued to stab Bill repeatedly. The demon was jumping around the place, escaping every blow.

"I just wanted to become human again. It's been a goddam long time you know, I almost lost it and decided to kill you all. Instead I changed places with one of you. Melanie's probably better off where she is, she never belonged with you anyway, she was too great. She was darker than any of you might think. She's probably happier where she is in the Mindscape." Mabel had stopped stabbing Bill to listen to his plea, or what sounded more like a persuasive speech. Dipper, hearing what Bill said about Melanie, kicked him where he knew it would hurt. Once Bill was on the floor he continued to kick him, ushering words between each blow.

"Melanie will never be happy because of you! Neither will Mabel and me! " With one final blow, he stopped and turned back to hug Mabel, tears streaming down his face. He turned back as he heard Bill groan. "Since we're not evil like you, we aren't going to kill you."

"We aren't?" asked Mabel, "what a pity." She nudged the body with her foot, Bill grunting as she turned him to face them.

"No we aren't Mabel. But we're going to banish him from this house, even Gravity Falls if we can; and since he's human, he won't have much power over us even if he decides to come back." Dipper decided.

"You sure bro-bro? It seems like he could still seek revenge if we do only that." Mabel asked, suspicious.

"He said he only wanted to be human again. We're giving him the opportunity to achieve what he has come here to do, nothing more, nothing less. It's a fair deal." Dipper looked at Mabel for approval.

"Are you going soft Pine Tree? I thought your experience with me would have taught you to be merciless, but instead it softened you. Seeing the woman you loved ripped away from you like that, it broke you. It broke me too when I saw the woman I loved die of old age as I lived forever, but it didn't break me like it broke you. I became stronger, fiercer, better; you just became a soft little marshmallow." Bill interrupted with difficulty.

"How dare you compare my brother to a marshmallow!" yelled Mabel, kicking Bill several times.

Dipper stopped Mabel from doing more damage, and together they lifted Bill off the ground. They worked to either hide or heal most of his injuries, left the shack telling Stan they'd be back soon, and brought him to the bus station. There they put him on the first bus out of Gravity Falls. When Bill got on the bus, he turned around one last time, and whispered "I'll be watching you. "before stepping into the bus and disappearing from their lives forever, or at least they hoped.

The twins got back to the shack, and together, grew a shield of protection against Bill Cipher first around the shack, then around town. Dipper knew it would be weak and would offer little to no protection at all, but that was the best he could do right now without Melanie. Maybe he could asked her for tips, or she could make a better one. Right now they didn't have enough energy to do more, and since Bill was a human, there was not much he could do. And he had let himself leave without much or any opposition, so maybe he wouldn't be back to bother them. Dipper really hoped things were for the best now, as he grabbed Mabel's hand and they entered the shack.

That night, Dipper saw Melanie. He asked her what she could do against Bill and she told him she could try to make a barrier in the Mindscape but that maybe it wouldn't work because Bill was in human form. She added that there was nothing more Dipper could do in the human world, and that she would try to warn him if Bill came back, thinking she could maybe sense his energy in the Mindscape.

"But what if he comes back when you've forgotten about us?" asked Dipper, worried.

"I won't forget you; I will just stop to love you, that's all. But you're right, I won't want to look out for Bill then. Unless…" Melanie frowned.

"Unless what?" asked Dipper

"Unless we make a deal. I'm not trying to be demonic, it's just the only way I can keep a promise forever."

"Whatever you want, Melanie." Replied Dipper, extending his hand ignited in blue flames.

"That's not how it works; I need to get something out of it, something in my favor. No deal is fair."

"Then what do you want? Anything for you, doesn't have to be specific." Dipper left his hand hanging there, waiting for Melanie to shake it.

Melanie didn't know what to ask for. She knew that as a demon, she could ask anything of Dipper. The first thing that came to mind froze her in fear of her own thoughts. No, there was no way she could possibly make a deal that would make Dipper a demon as well. What would Mabel do? And his family? She could not herself go back to being human because that would need an exchange. Suddenly the answer came to her.

"Dipper, I will keep an eye out for Bill if you promise to move on once I stop seeing you, even before. You have to forget me."

"I will never forget you!"

"That's your end of the bargain Dipper. Do we have a deal?" Melanie's own hand ignited in flames as she outstretched it. Dipper waited a second before grabbing it and shaking it, tears appearing in his eyes.

The world around them shifted and Dipper was back to his bed. For the following nights, Melanie would still come. They talked; she brought him to places she'd seen. He would keep her up to date on the shack even though she was watching every day. Her laugh was still beautiful in the Mindscape and she seemed even more beautiful in her human shape, having maybe changed some things she did not like about it. Sometimes she would visit Mabel as well, and they would have very important girl talks as Mabel called them.

For a few months, she kept it up. Then she started coming every other day, sometimes not even in her human form. The twins had grown used to her round form although Dipper still found it a bit weird. He just couldn't imagine the woman he loved being a ball. Even then she was happy to see them, talk to them and play with them. But soon her visits became sparse and she wouldn't stay for as long. Dipper could see she was summoning every bit of will she had to force herself to care about them, but that her efforts were not enough. Her touches were not the same. She did not say his name with the same tone. He could feel it was her but not really her at the same time. Slowly but surely he was seeing the woman he loved love him less and less.

Once, she didn't come for a whole month before appearing again. Dipper had thought it would be the last time, but he wasn't ready to move on yet. He knew that this time would be one of the last, if not the last. They talked about the shack again and how her life had been. She preferred not to tell him about her deals and other demonic stuff to not worry him, but Dipper knew she was slowly becoming a full demon. That night she asked him again to move on, to start seeing other people, to make some friends. Dipper left her that night promising to do so.

The following weeks he made some friends and eventually started to make out with some girl he kind of liked at a party, the thought of Melanie barely there. He began a relationship with her that did not last long, but it proved to him that he could maybe start again, love again. Melanie came the night they broke up and expressed her happiness that he was finally letting her go. Dipper was sad to agree with her, but resolved to know it was the best solution. She came a few more times after that, each visit spending less time with them. She came one time to wish him a happy birthday a month in advance. When his birthday came, she wasn't there. Dipper figured it had been the last time. For a while he still expected her to come, even after a really long time; but she never did.


End file.
